16 JANUARY 1932, Page 28

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE By Miss Irene Cooper Willis

A new life of Florence Nightingale (George Allen and Unwin, 7S. Bd.) was hardly needed. Miss Irene Cooper Willis, though she makes a good plain tale of the Crimean horrors, throws no fresh light upon the charenter of her heroine. Simplification seems to be the object of this study of a Most complicated character. An absurd stress is laid upon the disabling nature of Victorian feminine education. , It pro- , duced some great women, including Florence Nightingale.