28 OCTOBER 1938, Page 46

By Cesar Saerchinger - " Inside ' Stories of King

George V, Ghandi, Dollfuss, Mussolini, Haile Selassie, Bernard Shaw,- .Hitler Duke of Windsor, etc., etc."-Lthis is how, on the wrapper, dr. Gollancz advertises this book.' Perhaps there is a special edition for the Left Book Club in, which these " Inside " stories may be tracked down ; the modest. anecdotes assembled here (Gollancz, 15s.) barely justify_ their advertisement in such terms and type. Mr.. Saerchinger's • :task, as EurOpeari representative of an American broadcasting company, Was to induce the. celebrities of Europe to come to the microphone for the benefit of American audiences ; this book is a record of his successes and failures. Some of his thumbnail sketches of Celebrities are engaging, but for the most part the book is a rather tedious chronicle of negotiations which, 'successful or unsuccessful, have a dispirit- ingly strong family 'resemblance 'to one another.