MR. PRIESTLEY'S LATEST

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 129, 2 June 1934, Page 2 (Supplement)

MR. PRIESTLEY'S LATEST

On the announcement a few months ago that J. B. Priestley's next book would not be a novel, but a chronicle of travel in his native land, few could have anticipated tho great impression that would be made by the actual publication of his "English Journey." Indeed, the prominence given it in the Press has probably surprised even an author whom the success of "The Good Companions" must already have accustomed to the spotlight. Cecil Roberts, in "The Sphere," predicts for this book the fame and endurance enjoyed by Cobbett's "Rural Rides." Rebecca West, in the "Sunday Times," compares it not only with that classic of a century ago. but also with Defoe's "Tour Through Great Britain," written in 1070, and suggests that, to get the full enjoyment of it one should read it in company with the. records of those earlier explorations. Thereby one will acquire an extremely lively sense of what time has done both to the country.and to its people. Rebecca West notes ns of particular interest the difference In the attitude of the three travellers in such matters as the appreciation of scenery and architecture, and more especially in the effect produced upon them by similar social phenomena. With regard to literary quality, Mr. Priestley's chronicle, in her opinion, does not come badly out of the comparison.