Shorter notices
Barbara Hepworth 1960-1969 edited by Alan Bowness (Lund Humphries £7.00) Between 1960 and 1970, Barbara Hepworth produced 227 works of sculpture — almost as many as in the whole of her earlier career. This volume lists the output with clarity and information. The black-andwhite photographs are a little dull when compared with John Hedgecoe's look at Henry Moore, but they are functional enough. The book also contains a conversation between Bowness and Hepworth that leads nowhere — the mysteries surrounding her remain closed, which is how it should be. For addicts, there is a biographical summary and a full list of catalogue introductions, exhibition reviews and honorary degrees — e.g. Bard of Cornwall (1968). Referring to the quality of her sculpture, Bowness asks if there is an element of chance. "None; I don't like chance," replies Miss H. Nice to be so certain. T.P.
John Barbirolli Charles Reid (Hamish Hamilton £2.75) The biographer of Beecham and Sargent has now come up with an appreciation of a third champion of English music (it must be Boult's turn next) which will be a treasured possession for Barbirolli's countless admirers. Undoubtedly his chief legacy is the Halle Orchestra which he hoisted from the grave in mid-war to establish it as one of the foremost British orchestras. His death last year came as a shock but it was really no surprise when one reflected on his ups and downs of previous years — often in weak physical shape giving indifferent performances. Yet he seemed in his last year or two to have regained strength and his former zest and brilliance. Charles Reid has managed to pre-empt the authorized biography by Michael Kennedy because he started his before Barbirolli died. J.B.
The Regiments Depart: A History of the British Army 1945-1970 Gregory Blaxland (Kimber £6.25) This book deals in detail both with the military aspects of Britain's disengagement from Empire since 1945, and with the repeated remodelling Of the army's regimental structure. Most of the chapters marshal together details of the successive small campaigns of the imperial wind-up, from Palestine and Malaya to Aden and Ulster. The chapter on the military aspects of Suez is interesting, and the author does for once touch on the political background; other narrative parts of the book read like official regimental histories. The book has a series of good appendices and adequate maps — but for the steep price we might have had a few photographs, perhaps one of the 'lone sentry' in Belfast whom Blaxland sees as the symbol of the modern British Army. The book is a clearly-written and competent survey of an army whose varied rearguard actions reflect real credit on it. C. de C.
Woman, Society and Change Evelyne Sullerot (World University Library £1.75) If Madame Sullerot is passionate about her subject, she hides it well. Her book is a carefully researched account of the misfortunes and misuse of those luckless souls who happened to be born female, tracing a history of prejudice up to the present-day situation we hopefully regard as progressive. She writes in a tight style designed to be purely informative and she resists all impulse to opinionate. In other words, she could never be accused of writing like a woman. Her points are left to prove themselves through the weight of statistical evidence. It is left to the reader to get excited and go in for emotional speculation. S.V.
Blake's Illustrations to the Poems of Gray Irene Taylor (Princeton University Press £12.00) This monograph follows the publication last year of Blake's Visionary Forms Dramatic edited by David V. Erdman and John E. Grant in which twenty scholars consider different aspects of Blake's 'mixed art' the interaction of text and design. Mrs Taylor provides a catalogue and commentary, taking the designs in order, on Flaxman's commission of an illustrated Gray, for his wife's library. She authoritatively dates the execution of the designs between 1797 and early 1799 and considers them in relation to Blake's artistic development and his aesthetic theories. Ann Flaxman pronounced that He has treated his Poet most Poetically' and in the book the entire sequence is reproduced in black and white. However, for their full value to be appreciated, one must await publication of the limited handcoloured (facsimile) edition which is being prepared by the Trianon Press for Mr Paul Mellon, who owns the original work.
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