e. This certainly is how the publishers regard the
matter if one may judge by their ecstatically jubilant, "Artemas has
written a novel! 7s. 6d. net," on the wrapper of _A Dear Fool_ (WESTALL).
Well, I have read the novel carefully, even I trust generously, with the
unhappy result that (knowing how elusive and individual a thing is
laughter) I can hardly bring myself to say how dull I found it. But the
fact remains. It is all about nothing--a preposterous little plot for the
identification, at a wildly inhuman reception, of an anonymous dramatist,
revealed finally as the journalist hero who was nearly sacked for writing
the play's only bad notice. In my day I have met both editors and critics;
even dramatists. I don't say they were all pleasant people; many of them
were not. But--here is my point--practically every one of them had at least
sufficient of our common humanity to prevent them from behaving for one
instant as their representatives do in this book. Let us charitably leave
it at that. Probably the next man I meet will have invited apoplexy over
his enjoyment of the same pages that moved me only to an irritated
bewilderment. You never can tell.

* * * * *

I rather think that _The Man with the Rubber Soles_ (HODDER AND STOUGHTON)
is Sir ALEXANDER BANNERMAN'S firstling, at least as far as fiction is
concerned. If so, many others will share my hope that it may prove to be
the eldest of a large family. For the author has not merely the knack of
telling a good mystery story in a way that keeps one interested until the
last page is turned; he tells it in a curiously dry matter-of-fact way that
makes really startling adventures seem the sort of thing that might happen
to anybody. The story concerns the pursuit of a gang of men who are engaged
in importing forged Treasury notes on a large scale and uttering them
through skilfully organised agencies. The police and various civilians
between them--there is no super-sleuth to weary us with his machine-like
prowess--run the thing to earth, partly by skill and partly by good luck,
and the civilians in particular have a stirring time doing it. Bombs,
automatic pistols, even soldiers and a submarine, assist quite naturally in
sustaining the interest. And a pleasant little romance is really woven into
the plot, not just pushed in anyhow. Altogether _The Man with the Rubber
Soles_ is a most excellent story of its kind, a real novel because plot an