Vin Mousseux de Champagne

Of especial verve and sparkle are biographies* by "Ephesian" of the two most irrepressible and potent members of the British Cabinet. Though the identity of "Ephesian" is supposed to be a mystery to his U. S. publishers--a mystery not cleared up by U. S. reviewers of the book up to last week--it is becoming well known among London literatti that "Ephesian" is Mr. Bechofer Roberts, a distinguished part-time secretary to the Earl of Birkenhead; one of the great men whom he has biographed. Since Lord Birkenhead was famed as Mr. "F. E." Smith before his elevation, and since "Ephesian," when pronounced, sounds like " 'F. E.' sian," it was supposed for a time that the noble Earl had himself penned these two books, which seem the product of a brain almost, if not quite as keen, as his: "the keenest legal brain in England."

Bubbling with a champagne sparkle of mellower, sweeter, vintage is the tale of a Syrian from the sidewalks of New York,/-/- who went to visit the great, romantic chieftain of Arabians, Ibn Saud, Sultan of Nejd and King of the Hejaz. Before a backdrop colorful with the picturesqueness of desert life strides a stalwart, six-foot Sultan, who scorns and rejects Occidental customs, yet is shrewd enough to entertain visiting British statesmen with their favorite brands of whiskey, mineral water, and even "kippers." When the Britons are gone, all residual whiskey & soda & kippers are abandoned on the desert by Ibn Saud, who, with an oath to Allah, bounds saddleward, up and away.

Like bootleg champagne is the synthetic "diary" of a Soviet schoolboy,*** actually written by a Soviet schoolmaster. Though the perverse temptations of adolescence are decadently dwelt upon, the general picture of riotous, exuberant democracy in a Soviet schoolroom glows with the ruddy crudity of triumphant youth.

* LORDBIRKENHEAD--Doran ($4).

WINSTON CHURCHILL--McBride ($5).

/-/- MAKERS OF MODERN ARABIA--Ameen Rihani-- Houghton Mifflin ($6).

*** DIARY OF A COMMUNIST SCHOOLBOY--N. Ognyov -- Payson & Clarke ($2.50).