Mediterranean
Mediterranean Magic, by Eleanor Elsner (Herbert Jenkins, 8s. 6d.) Reviewed by GERALD WYNNE RUSHTON Mrs. Elsner's pages fully, and completely, and most satisfyingly, live up to their name! Mediterranean Magic is magical We drift luxuriously by private yacht from Crete to Palermo. At Corsica.we (quite unawares) help in the illegal escape of a bandit appropriately enough to Spain!) Talking of Spain, Mrs. Elsner gives an authentic account of the burning of a church in Malaga in the most cold-blooded fashion-and, au contraire, a story. of a miracle-witnessed and attended by independent witnesses-where the head on a crucifix moved-not merely Once, but The Crown of England. By Ruaraidh Erskine of Marr. (Dent. 6s.) Crowns and Sceptres. By Marjorie Bowen. (John Long. 3s. 6d.) "To illustrate the Crown by means of the Kings who wore it " is the declared intention of Erskine of Marr in his coronation book. And beginning with the reign of Henry VII, the author traces in light style, the rise and fall of the strength of the English Crown. from its original state of dictatorship to its present state of symbolism.
As is to be expected from Miss Marjorie Bowen, her coronation offering, Crowns and Sceptres is a book of pageantry. She deals.with the ceremony of both English and foreign coronations and gives curious anecdotes that her research has discovered in odd sources. A book of diversion and
information. I. C. justment between man and wife, a matter still insufficiently realised, but he grossly exaggerates the difficulty of so doing, in the interests of his argument. Indeed, he talks about people, and the persons in his numerous anecdotes speak and act, as if they were not intelligent, loving and willing human creatures at all. Perhaps the irreligious among the French bourgeois. of which MT. Blum is so ripe an example, are like that-1 do not know.
The writer of this book is the same Leon Blum who is Premier of France. I only mention this in order to disagree with the publishers that the book deserves special attention " in view of the important position now held by the author." A prominent politician is not as such better qualified to write about marriage than another man -as Mr. Blum's effort clearly shows. And he takes himself terribly seriously.
B. P. L.