After Dark

ENGLISH NIGHTLIFE (150 pp.)—Thomas Burke—Scribner ($3.50).

During London's 1941 blackout, when going out or staying home was more perilous than it had ever been before, Thomas Burke set out to write a history of what Londoners have done to kill time after dark for the past 600 years. Burke, who died in 1945, had been encouraged by the fact that even in London of the blitz "the Won't-Go-Home-Till-Morning spirit was never extinguished."

In earlier times, it was a spirit that terrified decent citizens. Beating up the night watch was for centuries an accepted sport. Breaking windows and starting brawls for the fun...