30 AUGUST 1930, Page 25

THE MINK COAT. By Edith Brill. (Humphrey Toulmin. 7s. W.I.—Novels

about people in humble circumstances are generally- depressing and sordid, or so urgently comic as to ring false. This one cleverly escapes both faults, and is a singularly well-balanced and acutely sincere book. The lives of a whole family in that borderland between working-class and middle-class are economically and even dramatically portrayed, each member standing out sharply and gaining dignity from the author's skilful drawing andjudiciously sympathetic mind. The study of Mr. Raynor, the obscure working furrier, is brilliant.