"COOK WANTED."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 17, 20 January 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

"COOK WANTED."

HUMOROUS 3>OMESTICITT. "She was a good cook as cooks go, and, as cooks go, site went." The bestknown witticism of tlio late lamented "Saki" is recalled by the second story by tlie authors of that bright account of London shop life, "Business as Usual." In this sequel, "Cook Wanted" (Collins) Jane Oliver and Ann Stafford continue the adventures of Hilary Fane, the young woman who went from Scotland to work in a big London department store, and, having wisely broken oil her engagcment to a self-centred young doctor, married Michael Grant, of the firm's publicity service. In "Cook Wanted," Michael is away in Canada, ami Hilary is left to wrestle with cook-generals and her small boy's nurse. Cook-generals come and go, but one wonders if it is so difficult to get a satisfactory servant; and colonial women who read the story may become impatient with Hilary— charming though she is—in the "song" she makes about lier domestic troubles. Our women arc so accustomed to be eervantless, so used to rolling up their sleeves and doing the job themselves. The humanity of the book is narrower than that of the chronicle of the great shop's community life, but we are given the mixture of wit and humour, sentiment and deft description, that made "Business as Usual" so pleasant to read. Mary, Hilary's friend, is delightful; lier description of Hilary's former fiance as an "eviscerated egoist" deserves to be remembered. There are bright chapters about a women's "uplift" organisation, and the bringing up of children.