6 NOVEMBER 1959, Page 29

The Tumbled House. By Winston Graham. (Hodder and Stoughton, 16s.)

Son vindicates father's memory by libelling his libeller, in the same way that the younger Gladstones dealt with Captain Peter Wright of the Bath Club. Excellent court scenes and a fascinating sub-plot involving fashionable young men in high-class burglary— all neatly interwoven in highly organised long novel, written with great professional skill and style and a real feeling for upper-middle-class London life as reflected in the law reports and the gossip columns. Inflated idea of how easy and lucrative it is, though, to sell stolen objets d'art to professional fences.