THE ROAD PAST MANDALAY

A personal record of far more general interest than might be expected from the statement of its content: ""the story of how a professional officer of the old Indian Army reached some sort of maturity both as a soldier and a man"". Masters has a rare gift for story telling, and even the facts of his professional training, of the details of strategy and tactics in jungle warfare, behind enemy lines in Malaya, come alive and make absorbingly interesting reading was the first volume of his autobiography: this is his second. The strange and unfamiliar life depicted in the earlier book provided for many an extra llip; the story of a soldier and a war has been done repeatedly. In fact and fiction and yet John Masters gives it that extra dimension that lifts his book out of the ordinary. His sharp criticism of is more than sustained by recorded facts. There is romance here and adventure; there is honest exploration of motives and goals, of responses to situations, that give it an overall recognizable quality with which many will find identification. It can be recommended on all levels.