Pigs were made to fly, by the omnipotent Mr. Chesterton
!and- a-white rabbit-talked in Wonderland.-- Mr.- Garnett's !rabbit (A Rabbit in the Air, by David Garnett : Chntto and Vindus, 5s.) both flies and talks.. Its name is David Garnett, and this is the story of how he learned to handle an aeroplane. He was a slow learner, enthusiastic but very erratic, and was np for twenty-eight hours before he flew solo. He his written, he says, to encourage a few middle-aged persons to thy and be a consolation to the pupil who is slow to learn." Mc has really written, I think, simply because he wanted to. This is a simple record, in diary form, of Mr. Garnett's flights front the first experimental joy-ride to the day when, having !gained his A licence, he calmly made a solo cross-country 'flight to Hunstanton and wished lie had petrol to continue it to Norway. It is only on reflection that we realize how ;conch less simply a less practised hand would have written. Mr. Gamett's record, as we should expect, is always clear, 'often amusing, and full of his love of the sky and of the :cattli he saw from it. Having here no form, no art which ;aft must conceal, he gives us an artless day-to-day mixture ,of technicalities and delight in his new pastime and disgust 'at:his slowness in mastering it. " I went up alone and did fifty minutes' climbing and side slipping. I like the air bekt 'above 2,000 when one soars in circles. There is not the ....slightest doubt that big birds of prey which spend their lives 'wheeling about the sky at great heights have the happiest ;Wes. My last landing was the worst that I have done fora long time." Mr. Garnett's comparisons of Bluebird and (Moth , his joyful lore of banking and throttles and revs., -may for all we know be bread-and-milk to the experts' nd ,zatiare to the general ; but this was clearly a pleasant book to write, and many besides Mr. .Garnett's fellow-rabbits :should find it pleasant to read.
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