Books: No Time for Fads

MODERN BRITISH WRITING (320 pp.)—Edited by Denys Val Baker—Vanguard1 ($3.50).

This anthology of recently written British poetry, fiction and criticism is a painfully faithful reflection of current British life: drab, grey, intelligent, courageous.

With an occasional exception, the writing does not shine. Exceptions: George Orwell's deadly attack on the gibberish-jargon of political and literary cliche-journalism, calculated to give hacks the world over the stammers and the shakes; Dylan Thomas' intoxicated poetry, difficult and dense but flashing sparks of overwhelming insight.

These Britons write about the war—perhaps with too much conventionality and decorjum, but at least they don't flee, like so many American fictioneers, from...