Best of the Paperbacks

Fact: ALAMEIN, by C. E. Lucas Phillips. This is a complete account of the action, in 1942, that spelled the beginning of the end for the Germans in North Africa and ex posed the “soft under-belly of Europe” to Allied invasion. El Alamein was a totally British show in which UK divisions combined with those from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India. It could be the last time such a com bination will fight for the one cause. (Pan; 9/-.)

Jim Clark At The Wheel.

The motor racing champion’s auto biography, which follows the usual course of such things, except that the champion declares that he will retire young and go back to his farm in Berwickshire. (Pan; 6/-.)

Seven Years In Tibet, By

Heinrich Harrer. At the outbreak of World War 11, the author, an Austrian, was in India, having taken part in an expedition to climb one of the Himalayan peaks. He was interned, succeeded in escaping in 1943 and made his incredible way to Tibet. He learned to speak fluent Tibetan, and eventually be came the tutor to the 14-years-old Dalai Lama with whom he remained until the Communist Chinese in vaded Tibet in 1950.

This is an unusual travel adventure book translated from German into easy, idiomatic English by Richard Graves, (Pan; 8/-.) Practical: In the instructional field the following have been issued this month: YOUR CHILD AT

School; The Pan Book Of

Chess; The Pan Book Of

Charm; And The Pan Guide

TO HOME FINDING. If nothing else, these books prove that fairly large volumes can be written on any subject. (6/-; 8/-; 4/-; and 8/respectively.) Neo-Classical:

The Time Machine, By H.

G. Wells, is a forerunner of today’s science fiction. It tells how the Time Traveller journeyed into the future and had many adventures (because, as he said, “Time is only a kind of Space”). (Pan; 4/-.)

Romance:

Heaven Is Here Is Lucy

Walker’s sixth romantic novel. It concerns an English girl, Jeanie, who thinks heaven is a big farm in Western Australia run by a hand some, dynamic, charming, giant of a fellow. Jeanie, of course, falls in love with him, but he is so taciturn that she doesn’t know whether he has tickets on her or on a neighbour called Sophy. (4/-.) Fiction:

The Tribe That Lost Its

Head; Smith And Jones; The

TIME BEFORE THlS—all by Nicholas Monsarrat. The first is a long and well-known novel of modern Africa; the others, two of his new series of short contemporary novels and not so well known. (Pan; 8/-, 4/-, 4/-.)

Lord Halifax’S Ghost

BOOK is a collection of gruesome tales of the supernatural made years ago by Charles Lindley, Viscount Halifax, and first published in 1936. (Over)

Great Ghost Stories Is A

volume of the same kind, which first saw the light in 1936 and whose authors include J. Sheridan Le Fanu, D. H. Lawrence, Algernon Black wood, Marjorie Bowen and Walter de la Mare. The selection was made by Robert Aickman, who is also the author of DARK ENTRIES, an original Fontana containing six curious and macabre stories of love, death and the supernatural. (Each 6/-).

When Sybille Bedford’s novel A

Favourite Of The Gods Was

first published in 1963, a London critic described the heroine as “a truly splendid creation—the sort of woman one could fall in love with in print”. The heroine is the daughter of an Italian Prince and an American heiress, who turns out to be more like dad than mum, and who is a smash-hit among the social set and intellectuals of pre-war London. (8/-).

The Spring Of Malice, By

John Harris—Post-war Paris and a plot to assassinate an American NATO general. (Pan; 8/-.)

Algerian Adventure, By

Cecil Saint Laurent, who invented Clotilde and Caroline Cherie and now adds an equally passionate and vital young female to his menagerie- Bernadette. (Pan; 8/-.) Thrillers:

The Incredible Charlie

CAREWE, by Mary Astor (8/-);

Taken At The Flood, By

Agatha Christie (6/-); THE CROSS ROADS, by John D. Macdonald

(4/-); And Second Opinion, By

Ronald Scott Thorn (6/-).

The Crock Of Gold, By

James Stephens, was first published in 1912 at a time when the author was working as an underpaid clerk in a Dublin solicitor’s office. He was one of the first of the odd-ball writers—all very Pixie Irish. (Pan; 6/-.)

Trent’S Last Case, By E. C.

Bentley, was also published in 1912, and is still regarded by many experts as one of the best detective stories ever written. (Pan; 6/-.) LADY, BEHAVE is Peter Cheyney’s tale about Vallon, who couldn’t resist women, not even murderous ones, (4/-.)