Small Kingdom DENMARK. By Sacheverell Sitwell. (Batsford, 21s.) te THERE
are other books on Denmark which provide a ol r comprehensive guide to that country; others that penetrate deelo):, into an analysis of its character. But there is none, to my ledge, which makes more satisfying and enjoyable reading of this; none that more happily evokes the charins and treasure'4, the small kingdom. Mr. Sitwell's moods are happily divers amid the rather detailed architectural matter which he so loving'3 provides, there are some charming interludes. ComPorilfilt modern Danish piggery with a monastery, he writes: 'The piglets are running round in circles on the straw, climbing," or each other, darting in fright if you so much as lift your hany'oce lying drunkenly near to their mothers, milk besotted, and,t more, all said and done, it is like a monks' dormitoritun, ,(1,°Iinitory taken over for the Pigs, and it must be added, garsinistered for and on behalf of them as though it is the Ritz.
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S author can be disarming too. One is just getting faintly I SW tt f ..eiied with upper-class nostalgia for times past and resentment th(31. ehar-a-bancs present, when he throws in a sensible remark t reassures us that his learning, sophistication, and urbanity— :4 superbly present in this book—are leavened by a warm '11111411anity. Mr. Sitwell tells us that one of the basic attractions of this coUntry, which he so evidently enjoyed, is that it is probably th'iF Most socially contented in Europe. It is his sense of this, I tIlk, which gives his book a curiously untrammelled quality. t it is some time since I put down Mr. Sitwell's latest and most ae11;Pting offering—it will be a long time before I forget the feel smell of those Danish beechwoods that he so magically uescribes. DAVID WATMOUGH
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