A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
THE world will soon be rather full of lives of Mr. (or, to be strictly accurate, Earl) Lloyd George. The first of the new ones to ap- pear is already in the Spring Lists. The writer is Mr. A. J. Sylvester, and it promises to be a singularly interesting volume. Mr. Sylvester was Mr. Lloyd George's confidential secretary for over thirty years, and without embarking on indiscretions or reproducing any official documents he should be in a position to present art intimate portrait of the man he knew so well, based on constant conversations with him about both contemporary and past events. Then there is a rather more formal Life, from the pen of Dr. Thomas Jones, whom Lloyd George brought up from Wales to be Deputy-Secretary of the Cabinet. Dr. Jones has, I believe, been to some extent hampered by non-access to documents necessary to a biography, but his book, intended mainly for America, will quite certainly be a very competent piece of work. Finally there will be some day the official Life prepared by Mr. George Thomson at the instance of the Dowager Countess Lloyd George. And there still exist, of course, the various biographies written long before the end of Lloyd George's life by Lord Du Parcq, Hugh Edwards, Harold Spender and, I fancy, one or two others. We look like knowing all it is essential to know about L. G.
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