There is nothing to distinguish Mrs. Elsner's rather gaudy account
of a Mediterranean cruise from the mass of similar books with similar titles, except. that it is the latest. -For that reason Mediterranean Magic (Jenkins, 8s. 6d.) will have its place on the shelves of those libraries which cater for the three-books- a-week reader who appreciates newness so long as it is not too disconcertingly original. Mrs. Elsner's cruise, started at the Greek islands—" their lovely names are as a string of pearls "—and right from the beginning we know that she will not fail to give her readers the second-hand ecstasies they expect from writing inspired by the Mediterranean. Her remark that " Cruising. among the Greek filandi is rather -like a- eittain:-- •
almost too wonderful to be true I " might well be made of her book as a whole. For she knows what her chosen public likes and gives it them generously, mingling colourful description with chatty personal anecdote, text-book history with hearsay, as she goes from Crete to Corsica, Majorca, Malaga, Morocco and the Basque country. In its way this is a successful book.
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