16 JANUARY 1959, Page 24

Takes for your Birthday. By C. E. Vulliamy. (Michael Joseph,

13s. 6d.) Relentlessly facetious goings-on about the liquidation of Millie Peas- willow, with noises off from such assorted charac- ters as the Reverend Theophilus Pogge, Sir Bedwith Bathwedder, Agnes Farrier-Sludge, and such. A joke's a joke, but this is a joke and a half.