INDEPENDENT MEMBER (363 pp.)A. P. HerbertDoubleday ($5).
Every Member of Parliament dies twice once in the way of all flesh, but once, earlier, when he must rise to make his maiden speech. A polite mumble is par for the course. Only once in a blue moon can a new member move the old House to astonishment, amusement or anger.
Oxford University's Independent Member Alan Patrick Herbert turned the trick in 1935. With his back-bench seat scarcely two days warm, he bounced up brandishing a bill "to reform the indecent, hypocritical, cruel, and unjust marriage laws...