I LEAP BEFORE I LOOK By David Haig-Thomas Undergraduates are
commonly divided into intellectuals and toughs. The latter are supposed to be inarticulate. But though Mr.. Haig-Thomas no doubt handles an oar or a gun with more assurance than a pen, 1 Leap Before 1 Look (Putnam, 10s. 6d.) demonstrates once more that these implements are not mutually exclusive. He has written a straightforward account of the more exciting moments of his youth,' mostly passed in the pursuit of thrills. He found them in raiding the printers at Eton for examination papers, tying umbrellas to the spires of King's College chapel, rowing in the University boat-race, poaching ibex in the Pyrenees and photographing wild geese on the Fens—his favourite occupation. Being in America for the Olympic games, he decided to visit friends in Canada, and having no money made the journey by " jumping " a freight train, and then kept himself by odd jobs on farms. All this is amusingly described. But it is his passion for the solitude of the marshes and the call of flighting geese that leavens the toughness of his Outlook and distinguishes his book from the usual records of thrill-hunters.
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