By John Dingle
ALGERIAN A.B.C., by Tanya Matthews (Geoffrey Chapman, 12s. 6d.).
THIS is exactly what the title suggests-a straightforward account of the seven years of the Algerian war which should
fill in most of the gaps for the ordinary newspaper reader who wants to follow events intelligently.
It brings us down to October last year and has come out in what may indeed prove to be the much heralded last quarter of an hour. But it contains the record of too many blighted hopes and missed opportunities to contribute much to optimism.
Both sides
AFOREWORD by M'hammed Yazid, Minister of Information in the rebel provisional government, conveys by the presence rather than its content the impression that this is a partisan book. Any such idea would however be unjust. Mrs. Matthews is no more partisan than the melancholy story forces her to be. If her references to rebel atrocities are muted, she is equally restrained in her presentation of the other side. This is a war in which those who have lived by the sword have perished by the sword and there have been untold innocent victims on both sides in between.
A big blemish is the absence of any index and a bibliography covering the earlier historical part would have been useful.