Australian Humorist

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 136, 11 June 1938, Page 14 (Supplement)

Australian Humorist

IB] IT is not often that one comes Wm[ 1 across a humorous writer who flt is funny, but the first book of the Bl Australian writer who hides El behind the pen-name of Rex Bff Grayson has made a book, Bi "Snatch and Grab" (Longmans), Bl which contains all the elements of Bj fun and - promises well for B maturer effort, when on a narB rower stage he fills in the outline B of his characters and brings them B closer to the footlights. I ' In his firet work he takes the whole B round world ae his footstool, starts- his B characters off in Melbourne, chases them Bf to England, through Europe, across BJ to New York, and then on to Hollywood. jBL Tliey meet many men and some curious experiences on the way. round, and keep B the reader amused with their reactions B and reflections. The story deals with j the adventures of John Vane, a MelB| - bourne barrister, who was good looking BK Vut not dumb, an unusual association, in nis frantic rush round the world trying B to catch up with his lovely lady, after B lie had qualified to look after her by B winning a £2500 diamond casket art B) union. Vane is mistaken for a film B * "tar by a daring "snatch" artist, and B is marooned on a Pacific islet while he '<*" J°BK^ ' n *° raising a ransom fund. B] .Meanwhile, the real shadow hero is across Kansas meeting some I of America's greatest folk, a judge who B presides over a "shot gun." wedding, an

Egyptian numerologist who tells the past and the future, a travelling "holy Joe," who takes him down, and eo on. The trouble is all sorted out in the last chapter of a light and amueing story, told in a way which leads to many a chuckle and much hope for still better work from a writer who has been gifted with an unusual measure of the "saving grace."