Simple Simon. By A. Neil Lyons. (John Lane. 6a)— First
of all let us give high praise to Mr. Peto's illustrations of Simple Simon: he has left us in no doubt regarding the physical attributes of Simon'e mother, and Mr. and Mrs. Foggerty, and the charming Simon himself ; so they are, and they could not be otherwise. Now Simon was a young man with a passion for asking questions ; he asked them of himself and of others ; be wondered, and pried, and investi- gated ; he tried experiments, and those who are already admirers of Mr. Lyons's art will be glad to know that chief among these experiments was the keeping of a hoarding; house in Silverside, R, and will demand no further recom- mendation of the book. Those who come fresh to his work will find in it a peculiar humour, irresistible, cynical, wholly irreverent, sometimesz—as in his account of a meeting of the Silverside Board of Guardians—a little unkind. They will also find a power of satire and a true understanding of what 'Ere known as the " lower classes." But Mr. Lyons should not, when writing of somewhat primitive scenes and people, be over-anxious to explain that he has no desire to be refined. "I know I'm impure," lie says. "I own it. I was born impure." Truth to tell, we were tempted now and again to believe him, and to remind Lim to be " funny without being vulgar."
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