s of his power.

"'Is Gallipoli nothing to write about?' I retorted. 'And you can't have
spent five years at a great public school like Kensington without one or
two sensational things. Pick them out and let us have them. For whatever
the modern theorists say, the main duty of a story-teller is certainly to
tell stories.'"

This prologue is followed by the novel which begins with English public
school life in the fashion of _Sonia_ and other novels American readers
are familiar with. The main theme of the book is Gallipoli.

The new novel by J. E. Buckrose is _A Knight Among Ladies_. Mrs. Buckrose
says that the character of Sid Dummeris in this book is modelled upon an
actual person. "He did actually live in a remote country place where I
used to stay a great deal when I was a child and as he has been gone
twenty years, I thought I might employ my exact memories of him without
hurting anyone." This was in answer to questions asked by The Bookman
(London) of a number of English writers. The London Bookman wanted to find
out if novelists generally drew their characters from actual people. The
replies showed that this proceeding was very rare. Mrs. Buckrose recalled
only one other instance in which she had used an actual person in her
fiction. Mrs. Buckrose is Mrs. Falconer Jameson. She lives at Hornsea,
East Yorkshire, and says:

"My real hobby is my writing--as it was my secret pleasure from the age of
nine until I was over thirty when I first attempted to publish. I look
after my chickens, my house and a rather delicate husband; write my books
and try to do my duty to my neighbour!"

=iv=

Back of the new novel by Margaret Culkin Banning, _Spellbinders_, is the
question: Has the vote and its consequent widening of the mental horizon
introduced a brand new element of discord or a factor for mutual support
into modern marriage? The household of the George Flandons was almost
wrecked by it. That his wife should accept the opportunity to play her
part in State and National affairs seemed to George Flandon a desertion of
her real duty.

Mrs. Banning has written a novel which will surprise those who remember
her only by her first novel, _This Marrying_. The surprise will be less
for those who read her second novel, _Half Loaves_, for they must have
been struck by the real understanding she showed of the married
relationship and the marked increase in her skill as a writer.
_Spellbinders_ is the sort of work one looks