SOURCE: “Soldier Tales,” in The Times Literary Supplement, No. 2147, March 27, 1943, p. 149.

In the following essay, the anonymous reviewer provides a mixed assessment of The Last Inspection, finding only some of the stories to be successful.

The best stories in this collection of short stories [The Last Inspection], by which is meant those that probably struck the author, too, as presenting fresh facets of truth, include the title-piece. This account of the Brigadier's last rounds before retirement comes from the ranks, from the crew of the service train, from below the windows of the saloon that holds all the food and all the speeches. It is comic, critical, and above all in relief: the reader shares the author's view of the world as he might a painter's. Another indisputable success is “They Came,” the sketch of a soldier returning from the leave on which his wife was killed in...