Some Books of the Week
Mn. EDWARD F. Sphig.cE has followed two exacting and exhausting professions with profit and distinction—Law and Journalism—having been for many years both a well-known K.C. and a distinguished dramatic critic. In addition, he has made a host of friends. Certainly, therefore, there was matter here for an extremely good book of reminiscences, and the reader will not be disappointed in Bar and Buskin (Elkin Mathews and Marrot, 15s.), for there is an indefinable charm about Mr. Spence's pages. In a sense, the author has worked too hard and too successfully to have had an exciting life : ups and downs he has had, of course, and sorrows and anxieties, but the shattering troubles of a Marshall Hall did not come his way, nor the " glittering prizes " of a Lord Birkenhead. However, there is pleasure to be found in tracing the passage of this unassuming and talented character through Fleet Street and the Law Courts, and in watching him on a trout- stream, or golf-course, or at a chess-table (all his games needed mental alertness) and finally retiring to his Wiltshire home, where he is still enjoying life amongst his books and flowers.
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