Sassenachs

ENGLAND, THEIR ENGLAND -- A. G. Macdonell--Macmillan ($2).

Though there is little love lost between the Irish and the English, between the Scots and their Sassenach cousins there is a friendlier feeling. The English regard the Scots with mixed admiration as a nation of sturdy but unconsciously humorous characters; the Scots view the English with more or less kindly contempt. Scottish Author Macdonell, at home on both sides of the Tweed, has written the kind of hilarious, good-natured (i.e. flattering) satire on England which Englishmen love. U. S. readers may enjoy it too, unless they have Irish blood in them, in which case they may be annoyed at the way Author Macdonell pulls his punches.

When Davies, a Welshman, and Cameron, a Scotsman, were artillery officers in France they discussed the strange nature of the English. Davies was a publisher in civil life; he suggested that Cameron do a Scot's-eye-view book on the subject. When they met again, in peacetime London, where Cameron was starting in as a journalist, Davies reminded Cameron of the idea and he began collecting material. The more he got, the more confused he became. He played in a wild cricket match with his brilliant literary acquaintances, made one of an incongruous crowd of guests at a country-house weekend, reviewed "good" and "bad" plays for a London newspaper, acted as private secretary for a Conservative M. P. called to Geneva to serve on some League of Nations committees, electioneered, went for a Christmas holiday on a freighter, and finally discovered the timeless heart of England in the slow-changing countryside. Occasionally, as when he is portraying the asinine and brutal vulgarity of the modern young bloods and contrasting it with the traditional wisdom and courtesy of the old generation, Author Macdonell's good nature breaks down into invective or falters into sentimentality. But most of the time he is content to point a blunt and sudden finger, raise a hearty laugh.

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