ALL THE BEST IN EUROPE.

By SydneyClark ' 12. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1955. 504pp. $4.95.

Over my desk as I write this review stand copies of Norway on Fifty Dollars and Swedenon Fifty Dollars by Sydney Clark with my name and the date 1936 on the flyleaf. (For the record, I didn't get through either country for $50, even in those halcyon days.)

As an old devotee of the indefatigable and peripatetic Mr. Clark, I welcome his vibrant little distillation of 120 months' travel (as he states) in Europe since 1929, All the Best inEurope. (I just calculated that I have spent 65 months in Europe since 1929, but let me assure you that Mr. Clark knows closer to twenty times as much as I do about that variegated continent instead of twice as much as mathematics would suggest.)

The friendliness that this knowledgeable travel book exhibits towards the people of the twenty-one major and nine minor countries of western Europe, which he takes up alphabetically, shines through his clear exposition. He stresses off-season travel where possible - a very wise idea.

I read all of his country-by-country reports with interest, and several of them rather critically. Having spent several years in England in recent times, I feel I know that country quite well. Mr. Clark, however, pointed out a few things that I didn't know about at all and gave me some fresh insight into things with which I felt reasonably acquainted. As an old Norwegian fan, I studied that particular chapter with more than normal care, and cursed myself for a dolt in having missed in four trips to Norway some of the fascinating things Mr. Clark seemed to know so much about.

This is an eminently practical volume and covers the basic knowledge needed by any sensible tourist in each of the lands treated. Catholic in taste, the pestiferous ladies of the evening from the Burlington Arcade-Piccadilly area are treated with the same judicious care as the Uffizi Gallery.

I last saw Spain in 1932. Having read about the advantages of unusual and inexpensive travel there in alluring prose, my wife and I have both decided that Spain must be included as a motor tour on our next trip abroad.

While this is clearly a handbook for people who are actually going somewhere, for those America-stuck it might be fun as a fireside travel excursion. My reviewer's copy of this book is going to an avid traveller friend of mine as a going-away present on his sabbatical - with the stipulation that he give it back to me when he returns.

Since all reviewers must be critical of something, I might suggest only that Mr. Clark buy himself a pair of skis and find out more about winter sports activities in the countries of Europe geared for this traditional Dartmouth activity!