Book Reviews

“America and Its People” is the type of book one finds easy to read, in fact it is of a type not easy to lay down once started. The only criticism I level at it is that it is too short – for my liking. Paine features large in it.

THIS commemorative volume is something of a botch-potch. Jumbled together are short tributes to Gallacher, extracts from his own writings, a number of essays mostly on literary themes, and a section which re-prints some of Thomas Spence’s work. Amongst the wealth of material there is much of pure gold

This book has much to commend it, at the same time it is rather a difficult work on which to comment. Central to it is the hundred years existence of the National Secular Society, but it is not really a history of the organisation. The title thus misleads.

I am delighted that children these days are being treated to a great number of excellent books – books, in which they can discover pleasure and stimulation for their receptive minds. My delight was doubled, when I received Mrs. Grace Neff Brett’s The Picture Story and Biography of Tom Paine.

I happen to know the authors of both these booklets, and I also know the amount of research put into the preparation of their works; I trust that I shall be forgiven, when I say that, as after a healthy meal, I wanted more, after I had finished reading them.