Shorter Notices
Tedious and Brief. By James Bridle. (Constable. los.) Tins is a book of collected scraps, to be read scrappily at odd moments here and there. Mr. Bridie frankly confesses that his volume consists of " a number of parerga unearthed in a recent salvage drive." He refuses to apologise, since he says that nowadays when there is so little to read almost anything will do. After so disarming an opening it is difficult to say without seeming curmud- geonly that perhaps the paper might have been better employed. Yet when you cannot get the English classics, which surely are better reading for everyone than " almost anything," you begin to wonder. On the other hand, Mr. Bridie is not quite fair to him- self, for some of the things in his collection are worth preserving, such as an essay on the Scottish character and a wireless talk on Barrie. Everything in the book is shot with Mr. Bridie's peculiarly - impish humour, but it must be confessed that one wishes he would sometimes stop talking about himself as though he were somebody else. Many of the items are amusing little plays, one of which is, " as all plays should be, in beautiful poetry," and all of them have the authentic Bridie touch, that unexpected little twist of phrase which always keeps us alert for a new idea.
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