LITERARY.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 73, 27 March 1920, Page 18

LITERARY.

A novelty in cookery books has been issued by Stanley Paul and Co. in "The Everyday Cake Book.'-' Thiß little volume contains a different recipe for every day c.f tin- year. G.S., the compiler of the hook, for February 27, for example, sugigcsts Scotch shortbread, while on May 15 we lind school cake is the order of the (lay. It is possibly unnecessary to specify that on December 2,"i the recipe is for Christmas cake. While we arc I told in an introduction that G.S. is indebted to Mrs. Lloyd George and other eminent ladies, the recipes they contribute arc. unfortunately, not indicated so that thi l user of the book out of such I a variety of suggested cakes must just I dive in and take pot luck. In the "Cornhill Magazine Henrietta 'I. Harnett, wife of the late Canon Burnett, makes a lengthy appeal for a better recognition by the taxpayer of the obligation to provide convenient and sanitary houses for the poorer paid .section of the community. That such a need is realised more or less fully in the Dominion we think may be conceded, but part of the battle in Britain is to convince the people that there is much amiss with the slum life to which so many are condemned. We like her story of the municipal councillor who, after listening I for an hour to her lecture on the imi piovement of housing, asked, "What j objection can there be to families living in basements?" The chairman was certainly justified in taking the speaker's startled and pathetic, "Oh!" as an answer to the question. In this same February number Major(.oneral Sir Geo. MacMunn, in an article "Lr of the Chaldees," links up the stories of the Old Testament with specific localities in Mesopotamia much more convincingly than is the case in most attempts that we have read in the same direction. A great deal of light has been thrown on biblical locations by the pre-war investigations in and about old Nineveh, but the possibilities that a settled occupation will give the archaeologist cannot be estimated, and in the tablets and fragments that are so plentiful in the district about Uhr, one of the great sources of enlightenment iinquesi ionably exists. Latest files of the London "Sunday Times" contain the opening chapters of Ceneral Townshend's story of his Mesopotamian campaign, including the siege of Kut. It promises to be an important contribution to the literature of tho war. "In my book I attack nobody, living or dead,"-s>iiditli General, in replyto a question. "I simply tell my own story and the absolute facts that are within my own knowledge. You may also add that during the two years and four months I spent in the hands of the Turks T wrote a book on strategy, which will be published shortly. The misery of that awful time was something appalling, and f should certainly have gone mad but for the fact that I have always been a student of war, and was able to devote myself to my book. That was my salvation, because it kept my mind occupied. I have always intended to write the book, and during my active career in the Army 1 had no leisure to sit down and do work of that kind." A SHEAF OF VERSE. He would need to have ample leisure who would attempt to keep up with even the best of the verse published to-day. Here is a batch of four new volumes of verse, all of them interesting, hut none in the front rank. 'Trom Croft i and Clachan" (H. F. W. Deane and Sons, London), is a collection of Highland verses by Mr. Murdoch Maclean, who is described as "the first poet produced by the Highlands to sing in the English language of the lot of the crofter." Mr. Maclean is passionately Highland, and his songs are of the common people, the victims of the deeriforest laird, toilers of the sea, men who • have so swiftly answered the call to arms. Indeed, Mr. Maclean asks: "Whose but ours the arm that conquered?" and asserts that "ours the strength made England great." Poor England—a point surrounded by a wide Celtic fringe! But one must not be too hard on Mr. Maclean. His (heart's in the Highlands, and he rightly sings of what he knows. | The Lowland folk are near and lean, thel Lowland folk nre cold; They hunger like the hound tmfed for mastery and gold, And paint their skins and stain their locks to save them growing old. i He has vigour, considerable poetic gifts, and he is steeped in Highland folklore, custom, and ways of thought. There is a fascination about all verse tinged with the Celtic spirit. "From Croft and Clachan" will appeal strongly to people who are of Highland blood, or are interested in Highland life. It is not easy to place Mr. Harold Child (or is it Miss Harold Child?), the author of "The Yellow Rock, and Other Poems of Love," published by Nisbefc and Co. Manj' moods of love are touched upon, and there is considerable depth of feeling and a good deal of ability in the handling of several kinds of metre. Here is a little thing called "In A Time of Trouble." When I mark her gallant gait througn these 'woeful days and slow, The smile and song that nicker fhrongh the chill about her heart; See her share the common life, not pamper pride of grief apart— I think of golden gorse blossoms peeping through the snow. Yet one misses the note of distinction that lifts verse out of the ruck of mere good quality. "Songs in Cities and Gardens,"' by Helen Granville Barker (Chatto and Windus). is a collection of sweet and dainty short poems of sentiment. She has a sure touch, and her poems give the suggestion of skilfully carved ivory. "Ambition" is perhaps the best—the story of a man who takes his "little Love from her place so still and warm," and I drags her along through life heedless ot j her plea for "rest and love and laughter." He never knew that his | Love was worn and pale, and never knew I that she fell until he saw her dead. | And now I journey on. amid winter's snow i and sleet. No little clinging hand to check, no little lagging feet. , Lastly, there is our old friend Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, with "The Guards Came Through, and Other Poems" (John Murray). Conan Doyle has long since established a. reputation as a writer of verse of action, and some of his latest should be popular. The poem that gives i the book its title is a stirring tribute to | the Guards for one of their many fine exploits during the war. There are" some ' "ngmg patriotic verses in the volume: ■ a welcome change from some of the ' all's-wrcmg-vrith-England stuff that is : written by the acidulous younger school. And that Loyle can be spiritual as well as vigorous is shown in "A Parnhle "