ARR. MUCH GIGGLING

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25739, 26 February 1949, Page 3

ARR. MUCH GIGGLING

THE COMIC LINE

Emett works what seemed a vein that must soon peter out; but it proves to be inexhaustible. SATURDAY SLOW (Faber and Faber) is his fourth collectiop of drawings from “Punch.” As usual, many of his most diverting fancies are inspired by railway trains, the most lunatic that ever rati- but trains or buses or taxis, howdahs or bath-chairs or aeroplanes, every drawing here is a ticket for Much Giggling. . , ' Mr James Laver contributes a foreword to Helen Kapp’s book of drawings, TOYING WITH A FANCY (Robert Hale Ltd. 68 pp.l. A word to the wise: leave it alone and look at the drawings first, look long and often. That is easy advice, because the drawings are delicious, as exhibitions of a fluent; expressive line, and as jokes—all of the one kind, the unexpected, absurd, literal-fantastic intei - pretation of a common phrase. (‘She looks like death”: a skeleton in diaphanous, modish attire.) Then turn to Mr Laver, whose critical appreciation of the resourceful interplay of Miss Kapp’s technique and her manysided wit will sharpen the pleasure of a return to the drawings. Osbert Lancaster’s pocket cartoons in the “Daily Express” are among its &TROD f UCTIONS ™ C ray 64 pp.), the first collection of them since 1544, offers an amusing commentary on a sad, mad scene. “My dear Ethel, if you had ever studied economics you would realise that it’s only the fact that things are more expensive which makes you

think the cost of living nas gone up”: we all know that voice (those eyes, that jaw, that mannish hat, those sensible shoes), we all know Ethel (aren’t we all Ethel?), and we know it’s funny. Mr Lancaster knows us.