Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1580

 Ao vertisements.

An Important Recent Work.

NARRATIVE OF THE VISIT TO INDIA OF THEIR MAJESTIES KING GEORGE V. AND QUEEN MARY AND OF THE CORONATION DURBAR.

By the Hon. John Fortescue. Illustrated. 8vo. I Os. 6d. net.

THE TIMES SAYS:

"Mr. Fortescue is always interesting, and that capacity of his has happily survived this far from easy task. As every one will remember, he was chosen as a member of their Majesties' suite during- the historic visit to India last winter in order that he should write the oflicial chronicle of the tour, and here in a volume of moderate size is the result of his labours. Official chronicles are liable to suffer from two grievous faults. They are usually too meticulous and too impersonal, with the inevitable result that they are dull. Neither fault can be urged against Mr. Fortescue 's work. It has taken, in the first place, a thoroughly appropriate form, for it is not too ponderous to deter the general reader nor too sumptuous to strain the average purse. . . . Mr. Fortescue has not been afraid of expressing his own views, and the result is a narrative with verve and point — a narrative, in fact, with all the qualities of Mr. Fortescue 's own mind. He will pause at any moment to throw you in a scrap of regimental history, which you swallow with delight. He will tell you, without shame, that he found his tent uncomfortable and other arrangements bad. He will keep the great Durbar itself waiting in order to swear at the colour of Indian official baize. His criticisms are numerous and sweeping, and in points of detail they are often sound. But, whether sound or not, they are Mr. Fortescue 's, and they give the book a character quite unlike the usual impartiality and reserve of an official chronicle."

LONDON: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.