What London Reads

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 177, 29 July 1939, Page 12 (Supplement)

What London Reads

LONDON. WHENEVER we pick up a novel with the name of J. B. Beresford on the title page, we know that we have something worth reading. Not all of Mr. Beresford's novels are as good as others, but they are well written, they all bear the stamp of long practice, and they are never commonplace. "Snell's Folly" (Hutchinson) might, in tho hands of the majority of writers, be utterly commonplace. It tells of Mark Snell, a multi-millionaire, informed by a curiosity to find out how the poor live. Also, he has a desire to help them. To this end he wanders in slumland, sometimes disguised as a seedy-looking rent-col lector. He dispenr.es private charity and helps a few here and there. Ho even builds a vast hotel for the accommodation of down-and-outs. In tho long run he discovers that private charity is not enough, but that it is tho whole system which is wrong. All this sounds trite, but Mr. Beresford saves it. Snell's adventures are unusual, the persons he meets arc unusual, and the treatment of tho subject is unusual, too. "Snell's Folly" is a real novel and not a sermon or a tract in political economy. Boer And Briton In "So Much Has Happened" (Cape), Miss Nora Stevenson takes us back to » war of forty years ago. She introduces «* to that stern Dutch farming people ij ''' ranHVfta '. whoso lives were so suddenly and tragically interrupted by » different kind of civilisation in the BrbT" ; >, „ 1 . 800 * They are Christian t). Ch a rl8 Bood i l- P £r , - loVin * ™* WO«M *£* Xnansh TTi«*7 jp ? y hatred ©f the

ByCharles Pilgrim

man, Robert Butler. The war comes and the girl, wno > s or a fi nc character, goes through great sufferings until she finds her Englishman in the end. The greater part of the tale is taken up with descriptions of the fighting, and there is a harrowing scene in a concentration camp where Joanna Brink dies. Miss Stevenson has told her tale with graphic simplicity. She has done nothing to arouse racial or national passions, hut with a skilfully restrained pen she has made Hear the misery and suffering which war always brings into a community. Her men and women are individuals and not merely items in political movements. She shows, too, how the deepest wounds can be healed by time. A Number Of Things A dozen years ago the Nonesuch Press published a Week-end Book which went into almost numberless editions and has become something of a classic of its kind. Mr. Francis Mcynell, its editor, collected nearly everything which might make a week-end enjoyable. There were poems, songs, riddles, games and what-nots. Now Mr. J. R. Evans has edited "The Junior Week-end Book" (Gollancz). This volume is equally comprehensive and will be invaluable not only to children, but all those who have to deal with children or who retain anything of the childish enjoyment of life. There are tales and extracts from tales, poems and nursery rhymes, games of all kinds, and how to make things. This book will be bought for crowds of children. Parents and friends will boy it because it will teaen them how to keep children amused. No mother with this book can be ignorant of the

rules of cricket, and every father should be able to do conjuring tricks. It is all great fun and great value for the money. // Dace Signor Mussolini is one of the most important persons in the world to-day, and there is much curiosity about him. "The Official Life of Benito Mussolini" (Hutchinson), by Giorgio Pini, will satisfy not a little of that curiosity. Naturally, the official "life" of such a man is not likely to be over critical, but this biography is objective to rather a surprising degree. Half of it deals with the Duce's career before he became the leader of the Italian people. It tells us of his insurgent Socialism, his adventures as a journalist, and his conversion to an intense patriotism and nationalism. Of course, it will not satisfy the anti-Fascist, and it cannot lie accepted a* a complete chronicle. It is in defiling with the most recent years that the writer shows the greatest partiality, but he is able to give some very substantial evidence that his hero has often been misunderstood and misrepresented by adverse critics. We have a picture of a man with enormous energy and will power, determining to do what he considers to be the best thing for his country. The Author Of "Show Boat" Miss Edna Ferber is one of the beetknown names amongst modern writers. She has just given the world a big autobiographical slice in "A Peculiar Treasure'" (Heinemann). Mies Ferber is an American Jewess, with all the persistent energy characteristic of her race and her country. She was born in the Middle West and at the age of 17 became a reporter on the staff of a small town newspaper. Thirty odd years ago this was a big adventure for a girl, but she was no ordinary girl, and succeeded in her job until ill-health made it difficult for her to go around collecting stories. Then she turned to the quieter life of novel writing, but her gusto did not desert her. Very soon she made a name and what must be a considerable fortune, a great part of which she lost in the slump of 1930. But she does not complain; she still finds life a good thing, and can still turn out her novels and collaborated plays with the same Terre as she brought Bau!Bßß*Bßsftt,

essays as a journalist.