30 MAY 1931, Page 32

Mr. F. A. Mackenzie, an experienced and capable journalist, has

accomplished the task of writing Lord Beaverbrook, An Authentic Biography (Jarrolds, 18s.) with his usual facility. That the materials for constructing anything like a personality were absent was not his fault. He had to rely mainly on extracts from newspapers about the election to Parliament of Mr. Aitken from New Brunswick in 1910, about Sir Max Aitken's pleasant relations with his constituents, and about Lord Beaverbrook's Empire Crusade activities. He also quotes largely from his subject's own books. There is a great deal of reference to Lord Beaverbrook's " hidden hand in politics, and the whole is written in a strain of uncritical admiration.