Laughter and Applause. Anecdotes for Speakers. Compiled by Allan M.
Laing. (George Allen & Unwin. 8s. 6d.) MOST of us, by the time we have reached the age for speech-making, have amassed a fair stock of amusing stories and quotations ; but when we sit down to prepare those graceful sentences in which to propose the toast of the Old School or to reply for the Visitors, Memory (the traitor) has a way of bringing up from the depths only such anecdotes as are hopelessly unsuited to our purpose and probably unfit for any public occasion. Mr. Laing (whose name will be familiar to readers of the Spectator) provides the remedy in this volume ; a collection of humorous tales and epigrams, all of them speech-worthy. If Mr. Laing's collection becomes as widely known as it deserves, all his ripest plums will rapidly turn to
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