A selection of short pieces by the author of 'Three Men in a Boat'. Included are two extracts from 'My Life and Times',one of these regards his early life and the other,his experiences in the Great War.A couple of funny pieces from 'On the Stage - and Off' are stories of attempts to make good in the theatre. Also on the Theatre theme is 'Variety Patter',in which a artiste turns the tables on a heckler in the audience of a Music Hall. 'The Woman of the Saeter' is an excellent ghost story,which is really quite scary. 'The Street of the Blank Wall' stands well as a murder mystery. There are a couple of clunkers including the mawkish,The Passing of the Third Floor Back',which must be one of the worst examples of its type to be found anywhere. The rest are however pure gold. ( )