THE BALLOIS

There is more chance of a wide public for this than, possibly, anything else Alec Waugh has written. There is more to chew on -- less of the delicate touch which sometimes verged on fantasy in earlier work -- a deeper philosophy of life today. Through the chronicle of an average English family, one sees the pre-war period in London, militant suffrage getting under way, rumblings of coming upheavals virtually ignored, the old way accepted as the final word; then the war, not sugar-coated, but stark and disillusioning; and after that the deluge -- post-war England and the breakdown of tradition. The members of the family bring one into intimate touch with each facet of the prism. It rings true.