["The Danger Tree"] blessedly brings back Guy Pringle, one of the last of the attractive heroes in modern literature. Guy is sweet-natured, altruistic to strangers, a protégé collector—and inconsiderate to a fault where his wife [Harriet] is concerned….

Miss Manning's prose is as neat and sharp as a new-trimmed hedge. Her feeling for atmosphere is intense, and while one is reading "The Danger Tree," one doubts nothing of it. She is always calm, even when she describes the terrible death of the child who picked up a hand grenade, and the bizarre sequel. Miss Manning is one of the very best of our novelists. She has a voice of her own, a stoical one, and it is a pleasure to know that this new saga of Guy and Harriet is likely to be expanded. She immerses herself in her characters, so that we feel we know...