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Spring has been slow in coming, but I got something more than a whiff of actual summer when Under Blue Skies (HUTCHINSON) came my way.  Mr. DE VERD STACPOOLE is at the top of his form, and it is a real pleasure to recommend an author who brings to his tales of adventure so nice a sense of style and so keen a feeling for character.  In “The Frigate Bird” the rapscallions who seize a schooner and, without any knowledge of navigation, sail the high seas, are full-blooded adventurers; but there is all the difference in the world between the character of the educated Carlyon and that of the simple-minded and ignorant Finn.  This yarn occupies nearly half of the book, and the other stories should give food for thought to those who allege that no Englishman can write a short story.  Apart from one charming little tale of a haunted French chateau Mr. STACPOOLE allows us to bask here in the eternal summer of Pacific skies.  I am very grateful for my sun-bath.

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In Poems of the Great War, by Mrs. ROBERTSON-GLASGOW, readers of Punch will recognise some of the best serious poems that have appeared in these pages of recent years.  The little half-crown volume in which they reappear has been admirably printed at S. Aldhelm’s Home for Boys, Frome, and may be bought at SMITH’S in Kensington High Street.

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[Illustration:  Voice of Tommy in audience.  “NAH THEN, MATE, WHY DON’T YER DIG YERSELF IN?”]