EUROPE BETWEEN THE ACTS

A wide, if not deeply penetrating, coverage of assorted countries and characters by an historical novelist has its quota of interesting anecdote and interpretation. From the austerity practiced in London, to the re-emergence of Parisian life, to a long profile of Rommel, the man and the legend, this ranges on to Germany, Belgium, Holland, the Northern countries, Switzerland, and Italy, and with its feminine point of view embroiders on the little incidents, the passing gossip, the climate current at each stopping place. And with a novelist's touch she gives the dramatic note to conversations, personalities and the stories of survival which she retells. The tangibles here are neatly caught while the intangibles of political atmosphere are personally argued, and the whole adds up to a readable travelogue.