SHAW’S COUSIN;

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 223, 4 July 1939, Page 5

SHAW’S COUSIN;

BOOK ABOIUT RELATIVES.

f: INTERLEAVED COMMENTS. » LONDON, June 10. -The former manager of a bankf in Melbourne, Mr Charles MaeMahon Shaw, has 'written a book about Australian relatives, of his cousin, the famous George Bernard Shaw. Published under the title “Bernard’s Brethren,” it contains interleaved remarks in red ink by “G. 8.5.” himself. Charles narrates that he visited his relatives in Ireland, in 1871. “I don’t remember much about cousin Bernard,” he says, “except terrifying him with my pretended Australian language and pelting him with pebbles. ‘.‘He-was a lean, carroty youth nicknamed ‘Copperhead’ and ‘Ginger,’ which lie resented.” Bernard comments: “Gharles undoubtedly met cousins, but I was 15 in 1871 and had started life in an estate office.” •

A newspaper, paragraph suggesting that. Bernard,' when he met cousins from Australia, wept because they were not black, lias produced the comment from Bernard: ‘ ‘This is too silly! That I, 15 and precocious, expected black cousins, is a sample of the reckless rubbish passed as Bernard Shaw neWs in Australia;” Charles recalls Bernard’s attack, on [Melbourne in 1925 as ”a stuffy old hole.” He asserts, that-this created a stir in Melbourne, which could only be compared with the excitement caused by Clara Butt’s “Sing ’Em Muck!” storv about Melba.