THE HAPPY HOUSEWIFE
By Helen Simpson
Mrs. Becton, in one overpowering, extravagant, and ever- delightful volume, dealt faithfully with all the domestic problems that could face the housewife of -her day. Miss Simpson, cutting the cackle, the pints of cream and the moralizing, has in this book (Hodder and Stoughton,. 5s.) produced a first-rate modern counterpart. She deals with all possible eventualities in the household proper (witness the index) and also with many outside luxuries, from Building Societies and Insurance Companies to motor-cars and sick cats. It is difficult perhaps to imagine the man or .wife, or even the betrothed of either sex, who needs to be told that for breakfast " tea or coffee is the usual drink," but this very comprehensiveness is a virtue. Miss Simpson assumes no knowledge in the reader, but conducts her (or him) as she might a visitor from Mars, through all the mysteries of the household. Almost all her advice is based on personal experience, but where this must clearly be limited, as in the choosing of schools or in legal matters, she supplies the names and addresses of the most likely purveyors of the desired information. To the practised housewife this book will be useful for reference : to the novice and the newly- wed it will be a boon and a blessing. It is profusely illus- trated with ugly and irrelevant photographs.
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