SOURCE: "Lineal Descendant of Saki," in The Saturday Review of Literature, Vol. XXVII, No. 6, February 5, 1944, p. 15.

In the following review of The Touch of Nutmeg, Burt asserts that Collier is most successful in the horror genre while his fantasies are flawed, lacking the classic form and content of folk and fairy tales, which Burt argues "cannot be tampered with, or experimented with, or modernized, or improved upon. "

John Collier has an extremely pretty wit, usually bland, unexpected, and deceptive, which is the best kind. In America it would be described as "poker-faced" or "dead-pan"; in John Collier's original country—England—it might be spoken of as "having you on," or "pulling your leg." It is very much of the school of Saki, as indeed his stories in their entirety are. Complete lineal descendants, although completely original and themselves. But every now and then the wit is more malicious...