17 OCTOBER 1931, Page 11

* * * OMNIBUS INSULTS.

Ingenious and generous publishers are steadily popularising the " omnibus " volume which packs between covers two or more novels by one or more writers. Was not the Forsyte Saga an omnibus Galsworthy ? And we have omnibus thrillers, omnibus ghost stories. The self-effacement of diverse authors, thus packed into discordant company, is evident and admirable. And it only remains for Mr. A., who has insulted Mr. B. by caricaturing him (they all do it) in his latest novel, to be included omnibusily in a large volume containing the novel where Mr. B. insulted him.