T. H. White has made … the same assumption which [Leo] Tolstoy made in writing War and Peace: that there are no essential differences between historical characters and people living to-day. For that reason The Sword in the Stone is not just a boy's book about monsters, or a funny book about knights in armour, nor a purely whimsical book like Kenneth Graeme's Wind in the Willows. It has something in common with all these, but has the life and solidity that they lack. The best bits of it indeed are the direct descriptions of nature, of country life, of the behaviour and appearance of bird, beast, and fish. Like Tolstoy, still more like Rostov [of War and Peace], or Levin [of Anna Karenina], White has a passion for all country sports and crafts. He can describe haymaking because he has obviously worked in the hayfield, or an owl...