It is not often that I recommend a book in
this column, and when I do it is for the benefit of readers, not the author. I have this week been reading Sir Norman Angell's new volume, The Steep Places (Hamish Hamilton, 8s. 6d.). It will no doubt be getting an extended review in The Spectator, and the reviewer's opinion of it may, of course, not coincide with mine. I will only say here that the relentless stream of logic and cold reason which Angell directs against both the Left-wing intellectuals and other more woolly- headed enthusiasts in both Britain and America who delight in exalting Russia at the expense of their own countries is as salutary and convincing as anything I have read these many months. It is thirty-seven years since Sir Norman wrote his most famous book, The Great Illusion, and fourteen since he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. His pen is as vigorous and incisive as it ever was.
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