Fifty years ago
L ADVERTISEMENTS of a volume entitled The Royal Family in Wartime left me cold and a little antagonistic; this kind of thing — cheap and a little toadying — is so familiar. Which shows once more the folly of leaping to con- clusions, for the book, as it turns out, is something of the first order, admirably Printed, beautifully illustrated and with letterpress whose quality is sufficiently guaranteed by the fact that the author is Mr. Dermot Morrah, of The Times. There are two other points in its favour; its price, 5s., is absurdly low for what You get, and all the profits (if there are profits at the price) go to the King George's Jubilee Trust. It was at a lun- cheon given by the Trust on Tuesday that The Royal Family in Wartime first came into my hands. The Trust, it will be remembered, was founded to com- memorate King George V's Jubilee in 1935, and all its grants go to existing youth movements. The claims of youth are paramount today, and I have never heard the subject better handled than in the speech by Mr. J.T. Christie, the Headmaster of Westminster, at the lunch in question. As one who occasion- ally stammers haltingly in public I sat envious and admiring.
The Spectator 23 November 1945
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