The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 7

THE OBSERVER, SUNDAY, AUGUST 2, 1953 NEW POEMS FOR OLD DODECANESE By HAROLD NICOLSON Reflections on a Marine Venus. By Lawrence Durrell. (Faber. 25s.) By EDWIN MUIR The Translation of Ezra Pound. With an Introduction by Hugh Kenner.

(Faber. 30s.) wHl probably find them the most HIS majestic volume is a monument to Mr. Pound devotion, to poetry, a devo- exciting discovery in the book. A from the other side of the grave, they Pet with the right disposition might pronounce upon it a timeless judg-tion unexampled in his time. And 'nem a new outlet for his ment.

Thev are in a shadowy way A powerful historical novel for holiday reading Bettina A novel of the splendour and corruption of Rome by Michel Durafour In Bettina the author depicts a heroine of uncommon passions. Durrell) worked with tireless efficiency within a few months Rhodes and her eleven sisters were in a fit condition to be handed over to the administration of the Royal Hellenic Government. Mr. Durrell's own was that of Information Officer. He was told to produce, edit and censor three daily newspapers in Greei? Turkish and Italian.

I am sure that he performed these functions with isG and skill. Yet he is not in the least concerned with telling us about the splendours of Military Government, he is concerned with conveying lo us the landscape and atmosphere of another island more interesting, more ancient and more beautiful even than Corfu -and with lellmg us about a people who still have faith in Pan and the Nereids and who still call the Pleiades ihe birds." Being a poet, Mr Durrell takes as his symbol an eroded statue of Venus Anadyomene. Through her," he writes. Ihe whole idea of Greece glows sadly, like some broken capital, like the shattered pieces of a graceful jar, like the lorso of a statue to hope FT1HIS is a gay and lovely book. I hope thai those who aie unable to journev to the Sporades will read il and vatch ot the sun-god's happiness and the tang of resinated wine Mr Durrell lound a little house lor himself among the oleanders and ihe Turkish tombs and christened it the Villa Cleobolus afier one of the seven sages of Lindos.

In the garden there was a coloured table built round a baobab-tree and at that table much wine was consumed and many stories told about the present and the pasi "idle conversations, leading nowhere except perhaps to the confirmation of a happiness as idle as this shadowy garden It is from such conversations that good books made. 1r Durrell is a lolerant man. bul he has his pi ejudiccs. He dislikes Army lea. the sultocatrng beastliness of Islam and the vulgaritv of Dc Vecchi, Ihe lasl bassist Governor Rhodes.

He loves (he Greeks, he loves their Kill-hodied loquacious amiability." their naked povertv thai brings joy without "their un-lathomablc Greek hutts." Iheir childlike pranks and titterings His book, as I said, is the sort that makes people happv. Partly because it is pleasurable lo enov the conjunction of an ideal subject wnh a wriler of quite unusual distinction And partlv because it embodies memories of this pure sunlight, these dancing summer days passed in idle Iriendship and humour by the maned Aegean." Richard ilson's Vale of from W. Constable's excellent illustrated study of this great English painter (Routledge The First Detective V(docqr. By Philip John Stead. (Staples.

12s. 6d.) By MAURICE RICHARDSON 'YHE C.I.D. have a saying that a detective is as good as his informers. Eugene Francois Vidocq (1775-JM57). the dashing young rogue who escaped the galleys to become first a police spy.

then the virtual head of the Surete. combined both roles. He is the out-standine example of a crook turning. during a time of social upheaval, in-; side out if not precisely into his own opposite. His life, with its continuous series of violent adventures, hairbreadth escapes, quick-change disguises, peripatetic love affairs, contains enough material for a whole library of picaresque novels.

Never a typical criminal. Vidocq was a much more interesting person than his nearest English counterpart, Jonathan Wild, the squalid two-timing thief- taker who became the first master-mind in the night cellars of early-eighteenth-century London. Wild gave Fielding the subject for a blunt chunk of satire. Vidocq was the model for one of Balzac's favourite characters, the superhuman Vautnn, self-conscious enemy and exploiter of a corrupt society. This romantic, frustrated element, however much Balzac may have enlarged upon it, was a very real part of Vidocq's personality.

It makes him a rather tricky character to catch and pin down in print. Mr. Stead, working painstakingly through a mass of material, including, of course, Vidocq's otf "Memoirs" which, though admirably lively, are only in part authentic, has produced an exciting and readable if rather clumsily written book, almost too crammed with incident, like an overstuffed pipe. Vidocq emerges as a figure of demonic energy and viialitv. and alongside all ihe picaresque jauntiness we get a louch of brooding which suggests the great man manque he himself thought that he had the makings of a great general.

The adventures are fabulous. The period the Napoleonic wars and their aftermath had a peculiarly sinister and feverish climate. The country was infested with gangs of everybody from highly organised jewel ihieves to nightmarish ragpickers and the "Chauffeurs" who warmed rich tarmers over stoves lo make them disgorge their hoards. In hotels travellers were smolhercd by mechanically operated beds. Vidocq's favourite method was to disguise himself and plunge inlo the underworld.

lln this, he was even more thorough than all the detectives of fiction, from Lceoq and Holmes onwards, who' owe so much lo his example When masquerading as an ex-convict ne blistered his tect and counterfeited the marks ot fetters, peppered his shirt 'with lice and caked his nnstnl.s with gum and coffee grounds to achieve the correct nasal intonation, He came unstuck. 111 the end. owing to a loo flagrant use of agent provo-. cateur tactics, and had the of seeing himself succeeded at ihe Silrete by another ex-crook. Coco l.acour.

a deplorably uncouth person He practised as a private detective, laier, a paper factory in which he invested, rather like one of Balzac's characters, failed He visited London with an exhibition and had. various tips and downs including a i nr.el coine-hack under l.amartine In old age. when shorl of ca-sh. he praclised Volpone's testator stratagem to ensure a supply of mistresses. He remains Ihe greatest detective of fact or fiction, tougher than the toughest modern private eve and far more intelligent, interesting and agreeable.

Fell Deeds (Humish Hamilton. 12s. 6d.) ROM ILLY Viola Garvin reviews: The Silver Chalice "The novelist's heart-felt conviction his detailed command of his material. Writing of events in the years soon after the Crucifixion, when the Gospel was spreading like a forest fire, Mr. Cos tain has caught that fervent pulsing enthusiasm and conveys it because he believes in it." VIOLA GARVIN Daily Telegraph A further edition this week I 5-'- ret Overdue-Arrived HLMFREV JORDAN horn writer, and his know-ledge and understanding of the sl'j give him an inexhaustible of material." Dailv Telegraph 10 6 net) 1 1 I I The Well 1 JOHN HEREFORD Won Sarah rorreM hac been jin 1 pier if she had never been -hculed" I Dr.imaiic original an exceptional gitt for dialogue fSi had to read on and on 11 Rub I Ferguson c.

(12 6 ntu The Sword ofSomerled JOHN P. BARTER This thriller of the Highlands has pkm ol' action and much goou 'V- writing" Gla.gon Herald i 110 6 net HODDF A STOLCHTON BY HIS WW HAND Henry Clime A grand, long novel nur holiday reading. For all who enjoy for tin I'ou'k nt Howard 1 lor aldwell. Not a dull page." Bl IN lri. HFKALD If DOREEN WALLACE Sous of Gentlemen A novel that hits out at the p'-' school where educa-t is secondary to profits.

A truthiul and telling cILire. LIVFRPOOL POST SHE'S RIGHT Dia mud Cathie A first novel of great r. iwer. 1 le has both style and ear for dialogue." HUGH MASS I NO HAM "Remarkable for the of its accomphsh- V. it.

THE TIMES COLLINS" PERSONAL cont. from Page 3 llll COMMON ENEMY. Help in ihe fletit (TucT sending a eifi to Sir .1 I Treasurer (Dcpi 0. -r i mi-. re Cancer Campaign.

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ey i i OATS L'RGENTLV WANTED. Rrinji tend them foe fate otter inquiries mwted cpl 7a Melcomf: Sireei bueci 1 but oer 0 ear i CRS stay new the uphoMcr rj.ro--d locc coven Wruc or phone the i-ilnrs CR-COVERALL LTD 1W. Stiee- London MONarch 1601-3 t'JMPLETELV BEDRIDDEN, yet too poor ic iy jjl wirclei ict Man of 6-4 completely -rJndden for 9 years with pituitar dtv Can neither tit up nor read ltiUl t. r-r vole aim ot the Wireless for ihe Bed-r 'cp Society to provide free irrle i.es for 1 rafi-it Lasei Funds are -tu needed for the Scxiet) i nauon-ide -in The WtreJew for ihe Bedridden -t a eibeck-iircci London. V.

1 lcc ai Vi vc l-tS i Poor wldrer itfi iouni children is worried o'-rr behold ejeperwes Grant needed (or xlra and iundrie. PIchjic hclo -ri for him (Jo hundreds ol oiher sad Laei Mir-nat Society for Cancer Relief Appca VI 4" Victoria St MURTS MADE lo memure with TrubencJ or oft collar Also cuitomcn' on shining r-iade up Write (of self-meaiuriaa chart iat i na eq uircmenu S. Seymour A Co Shi nK JLtd -ifi Gt HonoD-foad, Bradford. Yorki 1 I mutation of their nature Seeing life bound to it and yet free from it. for everything is over, and all thaf can be done has been done.

These acted aid danced meditations have a won- derful pathos and 'an accepted finality which affect us in quite a different way from classical or Elizabethan tragedy A flute's voice has moved the clouds of Shushinrei. And the phoenix came from the cloud: thev descend with their playing. Pitiful, marvellous music I have come down lo the world. 1 have resumed my old piaying. And I was happy here.

All that is soon over. These are the words in which the ghosts speak when they are released by prayer. And prayer can do other Thev say that prayer can be heard for even the grass and the plants, for even the sand and the soil here and they will surely hear it, if you pray for an unknown man That is nearer to old Celtic than to modern English poetry. The emotion comes from a high meditation on human life, when everything is over. It seems strange that this art has had so little effect on English poetrv.

but we know that Yeats, who had already been influenced by Celtic legends, was influenced by it too. THIS book is a treasury of things Frti, in ti if nA nlp remade for us. The remakings are not so fine as the best of the Cantos but they are nearly as fine, and thev are always comprehensible To pierce to the human essence of emotions situations, modes of thought remote from ours, and give them to us in our own tongue so that they may become part of our possession, is not an ordinary achievement. These poems are like additions to the sum of civilisation. Seventh Girl Daughter of Confucius.

By Wong Su-Ling and E. H. Cressy. (Gollancz. 16s.) By NAOMI LEWIS TPHERE is really no analogy in Western hie to-day to the situation aescnoed in this interesting and, i tbmk, remarkable book.

imagine a girl ot wealthy tamily, living several centuries ago, being able to step from her formal yet primitive world into our own, and to describe from the two standpoints her onginai setting. Yet even this is not a true parallel to the changes that have taken place in contemporary China. At the time of the author's birth (late in 1918) the household numbered, null its slave girls and servants, hft-y- one persons, their roles formally assigned by age and generation. We were like the pieces on a cness board, each with a dennite position and fixed moves." Over it all "the formidable fat grandmother ruled with Cunlucian sternness; always in for she preterred to show her wealth in the rich and colourful silks worn by the two beautitul slave girls on whom she leant when walking. Here the sons' wives never saw their father-fin-lav, or each other's husband; women's feet were bound (but an unbinding took place vividly described under an uncle's influence); a child would grow up with a personal slave not very much older than itself, who would never sit down in its presence, fortune tellers were called to settle the most vital matters of health or behaviour; marriages were always arranged sometimes in infancy.

And in the town outside there was no police system, no public water supply, no sewage, no rubbish-collecting. All this was less than thirty years ago. The author (Miss Seven) was the seventh girl of her generation. Being bold and intelligent she was given the boys' privilege of education, and later allowed nol to marry so that she could continue studying. She attended an American mission school; became a teacher, and after working in Free China during tne Japanese invasion, went to an American university.

The Confucian lite, she feels, is no longer valid for our time. But she does observe that it is possible for many people to live together only when there is a strict and ordered pattern. And it may be that there is only the fancied irony of the flat statement in her remark: 1 began English and learned that the cat can see the I thought of the lines that I had learnt on my first day in our family school The nature of man is originally Education in English seemed less philosophical." Her experience was not, in a sense, a private one it is a part of history. But more rare than experience is the ability (which this writer has) to perceive and record it. Her use of transatlantic slang in serious prose may disturb a sensitive reader who forgets the nature of the author's non-Chinese education.

But elsewhere the writing is graphic, calm, and wonderfully observant. And the spirited translations of the little poems quoted throughout are in a curious way exhilarating and memorable STOP PRESS MURDER Guy Ramsey "Just about the first thriller I have read with a newspaper office setting in anyway convincing. It has (be authentic feel of Fleet Street." Weekly Scotsman "A really good novel." The Belfast News Letter ''It has very considerable merits." The Birmingham Post 10s. 6d. net INTRODUCTION TO MURDER Wenzell Brown The unpublished facts behind the famous murder trial of the Lonely Hearts killers.

JOs. 6d. net DAKERS TI HE sun-god was absent on the night that Zeus distributed among the immortals the ter ritories ot his lately won empire. He was sailing his golden boat from west to east through the great darkness that lies below the plate of the world. On his return the next morning, Helios was indignant at this omission he Aas allowed tu create from the bottom of the sea a completely new island thai should be entirely his own he event is recorded in some detail by Pindar in the seventh of his Olympian Odes.

Il as indeed a beautiful island that i he sun-tind created r-rom central 1 abor, the mountains flow into pine-covered hills, failina in lerrace after terrace down to small amphitheatres where vines and oranges tumble into hays. At dawn the pink snows of Ida can he seen across the sea and at sunset the Canan mountains turn to amethyst Hehoi called his island Rhodoi" anil in attei years Chares of I indoi creeled a huyc statue in his Honour which lose U5 lect above the ulv and the wharves In RiiiunoNs ris Mmsim V'lm Mr. I aw rente Durrell tuves. us a picture of Rhodes immcdiatelv after its liheralion With two or three other British officers trained in the penlle art of mihi.irv administration, he arrived after a rouvih joumev from lexandiia I here was Mr Hole, a lormer consul, who was scholar and gentle, there was Gideon, a cvnical sentimentalist, who much disliked the Greek habit of enclosing cicadas in little cages made of reed, there was Doctor Mills, whose vigour and selflessness were ol heroic proportions One felt slightlv ashamed." writes Mr Durrell ot ill in the prt sence ol Mills And there were other nunor chaiaders to lend humorous or pathetic relic I THFV ai rived to lind the island in a si. ile ol destitution ili.il recalled I ho alterm.Uh ol ihe gic.i: sieges ol Demetrius Pol lorcctes and Suleiman II The harbour was in ruins, the porticos ol the chinches were sirewn with abandoned han J-gi enades, most of the population had lied the citv.

the deer that wd lo llickci among Ihe pine-trees had been killed oil by the Germans, even the cats had been eaten, and the fields and vinevards were strewn with mines He found "a Rhodes dispersed inio a million fragments, waiting to he built up igain This small gioup of able and devoted admtnisti atoi lonlv a veiy tew of whom aie mem ion-' by Mr Custom of Captive in Korcti. rJHIS short book is but Ihc-ie on Id be important, no sense in pretending that is cnjoyjble It twll obltye readers to lake an uncompromising stand upon the propriety ol publishing shocking iruth. NohoiK likes bcini; put in Ihis sort ol spol When Hemes sloncs ot It's kou.in adventures first appealed in In Oiki mi thev attiacled uncommon rinl.se. not least Ironi tcllovv -oui naiisis ho apjvci-ia-ted the detail ol Ins but there wctc also iicn'lc svlio piotcslcd that Ihe telling ol honors was poinlless." or hat it would do poliltc.il harm I do nol aciree Since The Nai war. and no douhl parrK oecausc ol it.

the articulate vvoild has on used 11 sell with a Ineae ot abslracrions uhish his been plcnti-fullv labelled, bul rarck npencd anil evamincd ncheic ihe delcncc ol ihe est lesisianic to i omniums? iression Ihe I nileil Nations. Libels is 1 I- oui'lir we lo dodec. pisl because it is ,1 nasiv shi'sk. ihe nuth ol he I let translated into ail ion 1 lo describe gnm incidents ot war is nol set elraoi inai What surprises about Mr Dea nc is ihe clean dive which he takes ro hesitation inlhirtv-nve pae.es he eaves sketch of American soldiers a I .1 which ill probablv have powei to mill liiture generations He becomes the vokc ot those voulhlul dead whose personal valour had no time-honoured concept, such as that ot ihe British lomim," to torlitv 11. so thai lor some ol ihem ihe imperial shock.

Ihe humorous shouldering of tai-nune. implies, was 100 much, and made them willing to die In few sirokes he creates a sounUs. koiea, svhete cruel climate is rivalled onlv bv odious customs. And there .11 the prisoncis the "special group" 01 iliplomalisls and louinalisls coked wiib missionar ies and South Korean politicians, united for all prisoncis need something more than troublesome late to unite them PI Books for your Holidav A thriller DERRICK N-BRROS Rod of Anger is undouhtedK .1 thriller, et it carries a more thoughtful reflection of rcj it til. 111 most r-cneK of action and adventure.

'He! docs not allow ihe ewitement ot 1 his slory to drop. ihe lima. IhiN 1 a remarkahlv professional thriller ith jtd hack-ground .1 nvl pointed dialogue." Literar Supplement A net. An omnibus Great Stories of SCIENCE FICTION edited by Ml'RRa Lhnstfr All these stories are by masters in ihe art ot science-ticuon -writing and achieve a high degree of plausibility because (hey are exciting extensions ot our present scientific knowledge I net and the biographical book of the month BRIAN CONNELL'S story of the Mountbatten family Manifest Destiny 15 net liy Philip Dearie. Bv aiLES The poems here cannot be regarded as mere translations; cney are 1 I rather discoveries, provinces added to the kingdom, like discoveries, they impress us first by their newness, and only then by their fine temper.

They are like objects lost long ago, in Provence or China or Japan, and now dug up and refurbished until they are clean and bright. We realise next that they have a place and throw a light in our own age. They surprise us as much now as when Mr. Pound first published them. Though he brought them from such distances, they belong to the contemporary age and to English literature.

It is hard to distinguish in them between the maker and the remaker; but to produce poetry of this quality it is clear that the remaker is only a different, and perhaps a more skilful, kind ol maker. THHIS is evidently true of all the translations in the book except those from Guido Cavalcanti, which were the first that Mr. Pound attempted. They are not completely remade. But the poems from the Provencal and the Chinese bring otf the miracle.

In his introduction Mr. Kenner expresses reservations about the translations of the Noh plays of Japan, but they seem to me to achieve a most difficult thing with astonishing success. These plays contain poetry more allusive, owing more to mere indica- tion or hint, even than the Chinese. A good deal ot explanation and some eff ort is aso required before we can oegin to understand them; we must dismiss from our minds the European idea of what a play should be, and be prepared to entertain a new set of emotions. These translations of the Noh plays have now been long out of print.

Those who have not read them iVeio Novels Private Honey Out of the Rock. By Barbara 10s. 6d.) Ahc Right. By Diarmid Cathie. Mr.

Twining and the Cod Pan. 12s. 6d.) Sons of Gentlemen. By Doreen By MARGH rjO describe a new aspect of human emotion is a considerable achievement for any novelist, and this Barbara Lollard has done in Honey Out of the Rock, her first novel. The story begins with deceptive simplicity.

Heicn, the narrator, is apparently a thorougnly nice sensible woman, childless, but happily married to Alan, her amiable loving husband. With contemptuous indulgence Helen becomes friendly with Victoria, a neighbour's wile, who untidily and wholeheartedly lives tor love. As Victoria drops in or writes her shapeless letters, gets a little drunk, a little more muddled, and at last falls passionately in love with Helen's religion-torrnented nephew, Michael, Helen herselt. watching and despising this uncontrolled melee of emotion, records it with increasing fascination. Only after Victoria's violent death do we perceive where the real destruction was wrought, until at last, distraught nearly lo madness, Helen knows her contempt and hatred tor her own husband, who, by always giving, has deprived her of the opportunity of salvation through generosity.

It is the subtle development of corroding jealousy masked by apparent contempt thai is Ihe strength of this short economical book. The writing and story-telling are adequate but tend to flatness; it is rather Miss Collard's unusual depth of perception that is to be praised and which leads to hopeful speculation about her future. technique modern novelists have largely failed to master is their own position in relation to their characters. Nearly always they place themselves inside their hag-ridden guilt-driven heroes, and the limita- tions the viewpoint imposes often make for unappetising reading. This common tro ic aff'icis She's Right also a first novel, where our only view is through MacGregor, who has come to New Zealand from fcnglanQ in GOOD READING In these hard years for periodicals the Cornwll contrives to maintain a high standard.

The summer number contains no poetry, no reviews, no illustrations; but the limited ground covered is covered well. Biography Harold Nicolson's essay on its practice is the plum of the issue a perceptive, finished and most lively comment. Travel Peter Mayne conveys, in an entertaining fragment, a fresh and convincing picture of native Marra-kesh. Criticism Tom Hopkinson is kindly severe on George Orwell. Fiction Admirers of The Naked and the Dead will be surprised by the Chinese ingenuity of a little tale by Norman Mailer.

All this, and more, for half a crown. N. G. The European Mind (16801715) PAUL HAZARD A dazzling display of learning A scene of astonishing variety, so intricate and so immensely important for the understanding of our own times." Rei Warner, Spectator. A brilliant survey." T.L.S.

450 pp. 35s. The Sign of Jonas THOMAS MERTON A very happy book It is a very beautiful piece of work, nut 01 wit ana wisdom. -Manchester Guardian. 18s.

HOLLIS CARTER a By imaSination. I The Noh plavs a union of dance, music, colour, and words, and this has to be kept in mind while one reads them. A faint notion is got of them by reading them as one might read the libretto of an ODcra. sav one of (he fine librettos that Hof-mannsthal wrote. But then one must remember that the dance is the most important part of some of the plays, and afterwa.ds that they are quite unrepresentational, and then that "the excellence of Noh lies in emotion, not in action or externals." Again, the actor must not imitate the movements and intonation of real people to secure his dramatic effect.

The spirit must out. the whole As truth of emotion is the excellence aimed at, the actor must be a man of probity. An old Japanese actor. Fenellosa is quoted as saying, "always instructed his sons to be moral, pure and true in their daily lives, otherwise they could not become the greatest actors." And it is told that a young actor who followed a dignified old lady in the street to study her walk and carriage was sharply rebuked by her for degrading his art. A MEASURE of the difference between this and our own classical drama is that in the Noh plavs the hero or chief actor is very often ghost.

These are very unlike our traditional ghosts, and bring awe with them, but no terror. They are spirits generally the spirits of famous men and women who revisit some loved place to retell an episode in their life which they wish to make known or to expiate. The action is already over, and what they do in iheir return is merely to sing and mime it; sometimes this ritual brings a trans- Lives Collard. Eyre Spottiswoode. (Collins.

10s. 6d.) Timothy Angus Jones. (Barrie. Wallace. (Collins.

10s. 6d.) ANITA LASKI hopeless search of a new start, and is training small drama-groups 10 tne South Island while his wife and children wait in Wellington. Of course, he loves nis tainily and wants to be good ot course. he is unable 10 resist any ul the temptations drink, women, etc. that lead dispirited modern heroes to final destrucUon.

MacOregors eyes prevent a universal view, and the possibilities of the background are wasted. 1 ypical, adequate, competent as the book is, it still hardly seemed wortn while setting it in New Zealand or, indeed, at Wis late date, re-writing a story we know so well. Mr. Twining and the God Pan falls into a category that personally, am delighted to find on the increase, the lignl novel tor the intelligent reader. Mr.

Twining is a Chipsian old schoolmaster, and his coming to terms with the facis of life takes place in the kind of glamorous Riviera society that would, from different aspects, equally well suit Palinurus or W. J. Locke. In this case the trimmings definitely stem from the former Tell me. Are you acquainted with ihe satiric poems of but the affection that wafts Mr.

Twining to his happy ending is of a simpler, cosier and perennially satisfactory tradition "TkOREEN WALLACE is one of those admirable women writers who holds a true mirror up to contemporary sociely when she seeks a background for her pleasant readable novels. In Sons of Gentlemen she describes what seems to be a new evil, the opening of modern versions of Dotheboys Hall to cater for those parents who, unable 10 afford a good school, are too snobbish for the Secondary Modern or too negligent to care. Her picture is horrifying and, 1 am told, true, and the almost fairy-story ending she gives to the simple tale of the young schoolmaster finding his soul is, alas, unlikely to be matched by reality IN BRIEF Beat the Devil, by James Helvick (Boardman, 10s. 6d.l. An intelligent thriller ranging from the Greene-ical to the subtly farcical, and set in France and Spain with an eye to uranium in Africa.

Gentle Rain, by Barbara Gordon-Cumming (Quality Press, 9s. Very good light although serious novel, of a girl under life sentence for murder; moderate mystery and well-imagined reactions to captivity and freedom. Janet Firbrioht, by Susan Gillespie (Hutchinson, 10s. Anglo-Indian society in the 1920s. Well-told original story of love and death, with sufficiently substantial characters to engage interest.

Spring Green, by Elizabeth Cadell (Hodder and Stoughton, 7s. Unfairly popular jacket to an unexpectedly good light romance of gentry and Americans, love and mystery, in a remote English village. 5K SOCIETY RECOMMENDATION DAUGHTER OF THE HOUSE Edith de Born 1st Ad. A work of complete maturity! whose truth and vigour should make its way a wide david faix OAjctwt). 4 A haunting, highly original story authentic work of kvcltk waugh.

A TALE OF TWO WORLDS Georgina Sime and Frank Nicholson the book has power and charm. Indeed it is a diitiltation of filth, hope and michael badliir (. Tana). CHAPMAN HALL 11 who, at seventeen, recognises no law but that of her strange and fierce love for Cola. Vivid descriptions of violence and passion dominate this startling historical novel a book which will leave no reader unmoved, 480 pages.

15s. MULK RAJ ANAND The Private Life of An Indian Prince This novel by "a man of 'genius (EDWARD THOMPSON) is remarkable as a study of an Indian prince of febrile and romantic character who inherits all the ancient virtues and vices of bis country and his own high class. Aug. 17. 12s.

6d. HUTCHINSON Out August 4th JAMES DILLON WHITE A Stranger in Town A thrilling new novel by the author of The Spoletta Story. 10s. 6d. ERLE STANLEY GARDNER The Case of The Lonely Heiress Another Perry Mason story by the well-known American thriller writer.

10s. 6d. JOHN LODWICKi Somewhere a Voice is Calling "This writer has a very unusual power over the unsaid word." 1 2s. 6d. NEW YORKER HEINEMANN The Book Society Choice 'Daily Mail' Book of the Month THE Overloaded A Gerald Durrell His outstanding account, otten exceedingly funny, of animal collecting in African rain forests.

I hail a happy book out of guy ramsey: D. Telegraph. Fascinating traveller's tale will appeal to any reader who has enjoyed visiting a zoo or delighted in a literary description of exotic birds and beasts an excellent holiday peter quenneix: D. Mail. Immense charm a genuinely amusing writer' Time Tide.

With 25 drawings. 15i. Faber Faber THE PUBLIC AND PREPARATORY SCHOOLS YEAR BOOK 1953 64th Year of Publication The official annual book of reference of the Headmasters Conference and of the Incorporated Association of Preparatory Schools, giving detailed and up-to-date information about all the public and preparatory schools for boys u-ith a section of practical guidance on careers and the qualifications and preparations for these. lis. net Adam Charles Blade SHORTER NOTICES bv intellectual vitality and the sport ot disinlovjcating minds drunk with Marx." Among these, as with the 0 I.

prisoners, Mr. Deane keeps the punly of a chivalrous pity. No sex, no alcohol, no bad language, no contrived sensation. So much for the record. Swallowing atrocities like oysters According to llr kisch, one of the reasons Ihe ti Is were dying so rapidly was that, while suffering from pneumonia, they had lo go oul to the toilet in their summer clothes in seventy degrees of we arc suddenly perplexed.

Where are the more ample gtl'ls of a wniei The journalist's ardour, serving a hiiltiant sympathy. thinly accommodates ihe slow reaches of a 1 hi cc-v car caplivitv lough leart illness, 1 01 given in snaps ot forgotten lionts. begins lo in Male, does ibseiicc' ol humour there weie IcarluS events, nol all was tear-Inl. .11 least not all was ctteme. But the sharp slones ol extremities are stcppitiii-siones to Mr Deane He cannot wade A wondering look at a Korean opporlunist.

Moon Hak Pong, who aspires to lead the clever, cosmopolitan prisoners, makes the best land it is nol large enough) ot his prisoner portraits lo complain is not to detract. The near luture is likely lo need Cptivf is KiiRi as a grammar of definition and mood simplv because it is so clementarv Deane does not. with leniole aulhontv, diagnose, he flies to (rouble as a nurse lo a colony of lepers, and jols down the marks as thev break out all over the place. Custom ot teil deeds neither chokes his pitv. nor makes it less matier-of-fact.

The pi. i -hack convevs. even at its scratchiest a sense of vocation AXEL Ml NTHK That Iherc is mere lo be said about Axel Munihe than can be gathered from San Michele" and the other books is almost certain But it is to be doubted chethcr The Story of Axel Mini he (Murray. 18s. 1.

by Gustaf Munthe and Gudrun Uexkull. answers our many permissible questions, jlone the impermissible ones 1 hi doubi may be based primarily on the curiously reticent introduction hv his son Malcolm, which, although only two pages long, is in manv wavs the most intriguing part ot the book, and also on the large in the narrative and reminiscences. As a collection of anecdotes and incidents it makes pleasant enough reading, especially in the second half, but one is left with Ihe 1 cy The Fabulous VIDOCQ 'A man of ruthless courage and insatiable sensuality whose adventures transcend GLY RAMStY. Duiy Telegraph A dashing and congenial narrative of unusual The Times Philip John Stead's blogrjphy has alio delighted IDMUND BLUNDEN PETER QUENNELL TAGGART jEO MALCOLM THOMSON Book Society Recommend 1 Zs bd net STAPLES oc I I 1 i 1 unsatisfactory feeling lhat the story of Munthe should either have been told lully or nol at all. Nobody can enjoy a plav when the curiam is onlv half raised.

P. F. POST-PRAMDIAL Mr Allan M. Laing is an expert parodist and it is difficult to believe that in Laighter and Appi alse lAllen and Lnwin, 8s. (Sd.l.

a book of anecdotes for after-dinner speakers, he has altogether resisted the temptation to guy collections of this sort so many of his mixed assortment are not so much chestnuts as cracknels. Yet there are good things to be found in the book, and a harassed speaker-to-bc might do worse than glance through it while his wife struegles with his lie. K.j C. "No, not just another military btxk." Sir Brian Horrocks "a moving book." Timtt leader "ought to be prescribed reading For the whole nation." B'iam GaetU "a tremendous talc" lirror Illustrated. 4JA printing.

laj. 6d. Two Eggs On My Plate OLUF REED OLSEN. "An exciting true-story of espfumge in occupied Norway." Daily Grapbk. jib impression.

Illustrated ijt. ALLEN UNWIN LTD.