_The Specials_ (HEINEMANN) is the story of the Metropolitan Special
Constabulary, and it would have been a thousand pities if it had not been
told. Colonel W.T. REAY'S book will stand as a record of invaluable service
performed by a devoted body of men, service for which the whole nation--and
London in particular--has every reason to be grateful. If I understand
Colonel REAY rightly he doesn't wish bouquets to be thrown at the Specials,
but he would not, I think, discourage me from saying that they performed
dangerous and ticklish work with unfailing resource and tact. All of us
know that they desire no other reward for their services than the
satisfaction of having done their duty; but our gratitude demands to be
heard; and I for one take this occasion to trumpet forth the "All clear"
signal with feelings of affectionate pride.

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If _By Way of Bohemia_ (SKEFFINGTON) is a fair sample of Mr. MARK
ALLERTON'S work I have been missing a number of very readable stories. His
hero, _Hugh Kelvin_, a journalist (they must be rare) who had no very good
conceit of himself, married a barmaid, and she ran his house as if it were
a third-class drinking saloon. She was one of those women who for want of a
better word we call impossible; but she found _Hugh_ as unsatisfactory as
he found her. In the circumstances the union had to be dissolved, and,
although I suspect Mr. ALLERTON'S tongue of being very near his cheek when
he contrived _Hugh's_ escape from a life of sordid misery, I admit that his
solution of the difficulty is cleverly told. And, after all, coincidences
do happen in real life, and it would be unfair to Providence to suppose
that they were not put there for a useful purpose.

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