5 NOVEMBER 1927, Page 33

IT HAPPENED LIKE THIS. By Eden Phillpotts. (Hutchinson. 7s. 6d.)—Like

his own Farmer Dean, Mr. Phillpotts can " size up his neighbours tolerable correct most times." These new short stories reveal him in various charac- teristic moods. Some of them are tragic. But most of them deal with Devonshire folk, and the prevailing note is that of kindly humour. Occasionally, of course, Mr. Phillpotts is farcical, and admirers of Yellow Sands will read with special interest of the unhappy love affair that befell the twins, Nelly and Minnie Masters, after Miss Varwell had left them their legacy and they had spent it on a bow-window for their shop.