4 AUGUST 1923, Page 20

The author of these short stories is grandiosely described as

" the prose laureate of the London streets "—a greatness which has probably been thrust upon him. At any rate, we do not find any lyrical intentions in these pages, which for the rest give a fairly vivid picture of the walks of life where crime is a little more plentiful and rogues a trifle less polished than where incomes are subject to income-tax. The realism rings truest in the longer stories ; the shorter are magazine stuff.