BRIGHT GHOST By Joseph Braddock
Mr. Braddock's "Recollections of a Georgian Boyhood"(Cresset Press, 7s. Gd.) have a gentle, even quality, serene and temperate. The story begins with a . family gathering at Christmas, snow, presents, and a real ghost, and it con- ,
tinues with life at home, holidays in Wales, and school. He had a large and well-accorded family, and they live for us, especially, in their speech—grand- father, with his love of poetry and his gentle moralising, Uncle Jack, who fancied himself as a ladies' man .and could not pass his theological examine-
tions, the Swiss Mademoiselle, who told fairy-stories. Mr. Braddock has a good ear for the individual peculiarities of phrase. He describes well, too, the snow-covered moors of Haslingden, the seas and hills of Pwllheli, the Exhibition at the White City. The little boy we meet, busily absorbed in his butterflies and pets, or in helping his brother in his more mechanical games, was very well in harmony with his surroundings, and his school-days, though unhappy at first, made no sharp break. But Uncle Jack was killed at Gallipoli, the boy, fielding in England, could hear the guns in France on a quiet summer's day, and the period whose ghost is raised in this book was coming to an end.
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