THE WEALD OF YOUTH

Sassoon writes autobiography no matter what his subject, so previous books provide background and foreground for this nostalgic looking back to youth, which is distinguished by his elusive charm and a will-o-the-wisp quality that somehow does not crystallize one's picture of the man or his work. As a memorial to a kind of life now gone forever from England, it has immediate value. It is a picture of the author as a youth in his middle twenties, of the county gentry, of sporting incidents, places visited, his first gropings in the world of literature, hopes, disappointments, failures and successes; friends and associates; and the First World War as an ""out"" from his problems. A gentle, whimsical portrait, with humorous, self-revelatory touches. Not important. Not important, but chatty, pleasant human interest bits about the Literary scene.