h some of
the results of it. Unfortunately Miss I.A.R. WYLIE is very chary about
dates, and she is not encouraging about the changes which most of us hope
will come with peace. "Social conditions indeed," she writes, "had scarcely
moved. Universal brotherhood was not ... and, for the vast majority of men
and women it had been easiest to go back to the old work, the old pleasure,
the old love and the old hate." Well, I don't know much about universal
brotherhood, but for the rest I sincerely hope that these gloomy
prognostications are wrong. As for the story, laid in the Delectable Duchy,
no one needs to be told that Miss WYLIE is a novelist of considerable power
and capacity, and here she has chosen a theme of very real interest. It is
the rivalry of two men, one of whom had returned from the War with wounds
and a V.C., while the other had never taken part in it because he believed
(with justification) that he was on the point of making a discovery of
value to humanity. The story is well constructed and well told, but I am
beginning to think that it is time for Cornwall to be declared a prohibited
area for all novelists except Mr. CHARLES MARRIOTT and "Q."

* * * * *

Yet more theatrical recollections. The latest volume of them is _My
Remembrances_ (CASSELL), in which Mr. EDWARD H. SOTHERN recounts, with the
pleasant humour to be expected from him, what he quaintly (and quite
unjustifiably) calls "The Melancholy Tale of Me." One has heard that Mr.
SOTHERN, now that he has retired from the stage, proposes to live in
England; the book explains such an intention by its evidence of the
writer's intense love for this country. Naturally he has a rich stock of
good stories, amongst which I was delighted to welcome yet once again that
old favourite about the departing spectator who, on being told that two
Acts remained to be performed, said briefly, "That's why I'm going!" Newer
(to me) was the _Dundreary_ tale that told how the elder SOTHERN'S triumph
was actually the result of JEFFERSON'S partiality for horse-exercise. The
connection I leave you to find out. Like all volumes of its kind, _My
Remembrances_ abounds in photographs. At times, indeed, you may be tempted
to consider that the domain of the family portrait album has been too
largely usurped. But there is even about this a friendliness which, coupled
with the brisk style of its writing, will give the book a popularity as
wide as that of