Fiction - The Apple Tree. By Daphne du INlaurier. (Gollancz. 10s. 6d.) The Sugar House. By Antonia White. (Eyre and Spottiswoode. 12s. 6d.) The Garden. By Martin Mewburn....

The chairman Lord Pakenham. the Secretary. Mr. F. J. Bellenger and the Treasurer, Mr. W. M. F. Vane, of the recently formed Anglo-German Association all spoke in favour of the...

It may well be that Lord Keynes will be remembered longer I as founder of the Cambridge Arts Theatre than as author of The Economic Consequences of the Peace and the other more...

I had a letter from Sir Jack Drummond only a few days I before his tragic death. It had been hoped that he would contribute an article to the recent series of articles in the...

A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK T HE citizens of this country as a whole have a deep regard for the throne, but any visible attempt to " build-up" royalty would be looked considerably...

I am glad to see that the Dartmoor Preservation Society is continuing its fight against the erection of a television mastwith ancillary buildings and a concrete road-on the...

Since the controversy on whether the Daily Express or Mrs. Donald Maclean is speaking the truth about the interview which the Daily Express claims that it had (by telephone)...

How many, out of the deplorable total of road accidents, are unavoidable ? The answer, and it should provoke sobering reflections, is-very few. The vast majority are due to...

I understand that a full-length study of Ernest Bevin by I Francis Williams is to appear in a few weeks. It should be very opportune. Trevor Evans' biography was published in...

In Defence of Tyndale SIR,-I am sorry that Sir Norman Birkett is so harsh towards modern translations of the Bible. Those of us who are still groping towards an understanding...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Prison Problems SiR,-May I as an active critic of our penal system comment on your note on the recent report of the Estimates Committee. Firstly, it is...

Clubs for the Professions SIR,-Will you allow me to use your columns to ventilate a social problem of some importance? Young men and women of the professional class, when they...

Labour's Rifts By FRANCIS WILLIAMS T HE seriousness of the present divisions within the Labour Party cannot be denied, and there are few among the leaders of the party who-at...

Catching a Pony When I see a man trying to catch a playful horse. I have to smile. It is an amusing game, and the horse enjoys it. while the man often loses breath and...

Lead-Miners A friend, who is a geologist, pointed out the marks of tbe movement of ice along the valley, and quickly disposed of my suggestion that he might be looking at...

Nesting Materials Somewhere in the garden a large number of ends of twine had been dropped, and a bird had picked them up and built a nest with them, fastening it between a...

At The Tomb of Adonis Translated from the Spanish of Juan de Tasis, Conde de Villamediana (1582-1622). Strip off the frondage from the dedicated Shrines sacred to the lamps...

COUNTRY LIFE THE stag-beetle was ruthlessly tearing one of his smaller relatives to pieces. A crumb of earth rolled awav; the jaws of the victim opened and closed; a foot...

Repeated Sowings Many gardeners fail to appreciate the value of repeated sowings at fortnightly or monthly intervals. A constant supply of vegetables and salad ingredients can...

"Our Great Sentimentalist" The Buried Life: A Study of the Relation between Thackeray's Fiction and his Personal History. By Gordon N. Ray. (Oxtord University Press. 12s....

Class Work Structure of American Life. By W. Lloyd Warner. (Edinburgh University Press. 18s.) DURING the last twenty years many social anthropologists have been occupied with...

Anthology of Modern French Poetry. Selected and introduced by C. A. Hackett. (Basil Blackwell. 17s. 6d.) THERE has been no satisfactory anthology of modern French verse since...

An Introduction to Elizabethan and Jacobean Architecture. By Marcus Whiffen. (Art and Technics. 15s.) HOUSES," wrote Francis Bacon, " are built to live in, and not to look on...

Everyman's Encyclopaedia of Gardening. By Stanley B. Whitehead, (Dent. 20s.) To an older generation of gardeners W. P. Wright's Encyclopaedia of Gardening was a trusty work...

Shorter Notices The Art of Television. By Jan Bussell. (Faber. 18s.) Broadcasting and Television since 1900. By Maurice Gorham. (Dakers. 18s.) MR. JAN BUSSELL, from his...

Down to the Lion. By J. C. Trewin. (Carroll and Nicholson. 1 5s.) THE second part of Mr. J. C. Trewin 's autobiography is a mixture of reminiscence and dramatic criticism. It...

Mirror to Russia. By Marie NoIel Kelly. (Country Life. 21s.) THE Russian authorities were heavily defeated by Lady Kelly's love of architecture. The wife of the British...

Reform in Egypt Egypt still buzzes with talk of reform. Several measures have already been enacted-such a. the abolition of titles and the reduction of the royal income-which...

Defence in the Pacific There is no reason for any complaint that Great Britain is not taking part in the Pacific Conference at Honolulu. The origin of the conference made it...

NEWS OF THE WEEK T HE Labour Party did not come through the debate on the contractual agreements with Germany with much credit. To end the agreement on foreign policy that...

Battle of Britain Week e SIR,+ I read Lord Riverdale's appeal in your issue of August 1st, .Surely the time has arrived when all thinking people will agree that OUi4 three...

Prunes SIR,-Will someone please tell me what constitutes good manners ? 7.Why need Janus describe as revolting any article ef food which contains nutritional and medicinal...

Sparta: Mystery and Romance Sparta. By H. Michell. (Cambridge University Press. 35s.) SPARTA iS one of the standard romantic subjects of Greek history (Alexander being the...

Studies in Kingship Napoleon Bonaparte: Hi- Rise and Fall. By J. M. Thompson. (Basil Blackwell. 3-5s.) Henry Vi : A Dfficult Patient. By Sir Arthur Salusbury MacNalty....

An Ancient Craft English Blind-Stamped Bindings. By J. Basil Oldham. (Cambridge University Press. £8 8s. Od.) A CONSIDERABLE proportion of the old books in our libraries and...

MARGINAL COMMENT By HAROLD NICOLSON LAST week I visited the " Story of Everest" exhibition, arranged by the Geographical Magazine in Lower Regent Street. It contains one of...

High Horse Race There is some danger that both the British and Japanese Governments may take such a high line over the case of two British sailors who recently "stole" a taxi...

A Ribboned Coat ? Are the grapes sour ? A little, no doubt. There really did seem a good chance that the team which Britain sent to Helsinki for the Olympic Games might come...

The Bey Procrastinates After the disturbances in Tunisia early this year the French Resident-General handed to the Bey of Tunis proposals for widespread reforms which had been...

Life and Death Not as direct sequel, but, as it happens in chronological sequence, to the short series of articles which have just appeared in these columns under the general...

FINANCE AND INVESTMENT By CUSTOS FuLFLLING his recent promise to announce the gold and dollar reserve figures month by month instead of quarterly, the Chancellor has given us...

The Fear of Death* By ERICH GEIRINGER, M.D. THE thought of dying-that of inevitable and irrevocable annihilation-runs counter to our deepest instincts. When instinctive urges...

HOW URGENT IS REARMAMENT? * W HEN the Prime Minister announced last week that rearmament was falling short of the programme the House of Commons betrayed no sign of alarm or...

UNDERGRADUATE PAGE Vacation Job By B. R. WILSON (University College of Leicester) T HE last long vacation of an undergraduate career brings one back to what an older...

Limpets By Professor C. M. YONGE, F.R.S. H 'OLIDAY-MAKERS on a hundred shores contemplate rocks studded with barnacles and dog-whelks or festooned with seaweeds concealing...

CONTEMPORARY ARTS THEATRE The Step Forward. By Anne Trego. (Strand.) A GENERATON or so ago, I suppose, this would have been a " daring" or a " problem " play, for Miss...

MUSIC I THE International Folk Music Conference, which was held in London last month, attracte& a properly cosmopolitan audience, whose impressions of England and her arts will...

CINEMA Room for One More. (Leicester Square.)-The Big Top. HMtel du Nord. (Continentale.) RETURNING home from a holiday with a beautiful clear blue eye, an eye fresh as the...

Albert, R.N. By Guy Morgan and Edward Sammis. (Saville.) "THRILLS ! Suspense ! Laughter ! " is how the posters advertise this play of the prison-camp, but it is neither so...

Olympic Records By PHiLIP NOEL-BAKER, M.P. W HEN I ran in the Olympic Games at Stockholm in 1912, an American schoolboy, Meredith, made a new world's record for the 800...

John Bull's Other Lady Misentente Cordiale. By Nadia Legrand and Roland Gant. (Jarrolds, 12s. 6d.) NQJTHING is more excruciatingly difficult than the task of trying to write...

-BOOKS OF THE WEEK The Imperial Tradition Lord Milner and the Empire: The Evolution of British Imperialism. By Vladimir Halperin, (Odhams. 21s.) IT would be heartening to...

No Champagne T --a- - -cs o-The Fountains in Trafalgar Square : Some Reflections on the Civil Service. By C. K. Munro. (Heinemann. 12s. 6d.) WE are all Socialists now, as we...

Wyndham Lewis, v. The Rest The W riter and the Absolute. By Wyndham Lewis. (Methuen. 2 1s.) THE present age is a private age in-the-making. It is all a question of how long...

The Speirers By KENNETH OCHILTREE it e TWO gentlemen from the Department." That was how my secretary announced them. It remains doubtful , whether her choice of title was...