Mr. Angus MacVicar has produced a work which many people associated with the life-boat service must long have wanted to find, a gripping novel written for the young on the work of a life-boat station. This is Life-boat— Green to White (Brockhampton Press, 155.).

The scene is set in a small town on the west coast of Scotland. It is the story of Sandy MacLean, whose father had been coxswain of the life-boat and had lost his life at sea. In the words of Sandy's mother: "When your father bought his own two skiffs and became coxswain of the life-boat, I was the proudest woman in the island. But that night, thirteen years ago, when he took the life-boat out to the Iron Rock Ledges and never came back—that night I vowed to myself that Sandy must never earn his living on the sea." Sandy works in a shoe shop, but as a young man he finds himself more and more drawn to the life-boat. He is taken on as a member of the crew, and although uncomfortable and frightened he proves his worth. Sandy's mother is resigned to his determination to become a member of the crew, but his sister has misgivings. Gradually Sandy becomes an established member of the crew.

On one occasion he and one or two of his friends, seeing an emergency, decide to launch the life-boat on their own authority. This somewhat unorthodox act is finally approved by the district inspector. By the end of the story Sandy has become coxswain of the life-boat and is a worthy successor to his father.

Angus MacVicar is himself a member of the Southend (Kintyre) Life-saving apparatus crew and has intimate knowledge of the Campbeltown life-boat station. Many of the rescues described are based on services actually carried out by the Campbeltown life-boat. There are a few minor technical inaccuracies.

For instance, life-boat flares are not fired from Very pistols. But these do not detract from the authenticity of a well presented and attractive novel. The book has been serialized in the Scottish Daily Express. Copies can be obtained from the Institution, price 153. plus is. 6d. postage.FIFTH EDITION The Oxford University Press have now produced a fifth edition of The Book of Flags by the late Vice-Admiral Gordon Campbell, V.C., D.S.O., and I. O.

Evans, F.R.G.S. (2is.). This is an authoritative and comprehensive work. Mr.

Evans is an historian not only of flags but also of the life-boat service..