The Arrogant History of White Ben

viii, 363 pp. Here the symbolism is grotesque rather than fey. The period is projected into the future; the characters are people made callous and bitter by continued wars and the loss of all they once cherished; the time is the eve of an armistice. The scene opens at the home of a woman, shorn of wealth, husband, lover, brothers, and left with an unloved child. Into this setting is thrust a strange conception of a scarecrow, clothed in the trappings of the dead, given life by a child's whim, and carrying to utter extremities his purpose of existence, the elimination of the ""crows"". That they should stand for all that was grasping and destructive in English life and politics was a minor matter; they must perish. This is the story of a scarecrow become dictator; of power carried to the nth degree; of England stripped of decencies and balance.