TRIAL

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23319, 3 May 1941, Page 5

TRIAL

England's How. By Ver» Macmillan.■■:• 301 pp. , Miss Brittain has left to toe special]; correspondents the description of Lon-J ■ don under bombardment, of the air|| battles above and the flame-lxt de-v structionibelow; Hers is a record “this wartime life as it has to the ordinary London civilian day : • by day.” Through-the winter out, through the stern days brought France to collapse, she to scenes: and incidents which reveal - an England routed to total war. . en-? during and resisting the. enemy s- air;, attack; ready to endure and resistm-,. vasion, determined, and confident. The; grim changes wrought by war upon theface of the parks and in suburbs ‘once-, residential, ’’ the blackindustrial . Mid-r lands' arid a sweet Berkshire milage v alike arrayed for battle, the cratered, streets ana ,Gnashed buildings of Lon--don, these are less directlyßrit-; 1 tain’s theme than, for example, the I proceedings of an appeal toibunaj,! searching but fair, the work of the relief oiganlsations in East London, the: noisy speakers and. the tolerant crowd, in Hyde Park, or the parting of parents . from children evacuated oversea. For first apd last, what Miss Brittain has observed and communicates Is spirit of a nation under trial. With, pride I assert that our equahleehdurance through months .of/ dMpening nightmare will remain a national saga so long as history Is written and read. But the author ' of “Testament of Youth” was bound to look beyond the; present and '■ beyond" victory, eyen, to the conditions upon which-it will beessential to “recreate England and Europe.” She-writes of thena with, moving earnestness apd with hope.

CARE 'OF THE SOIL The Labonrinr Earth.' By Ci Alnm Baker, C.B.E. Heath CmrfsnLM, 290 pp. (J2/6.) • W* l4 * i combe and Tomb* Ltd.

Mr Baker, whose death was recently reoorted, had done what hj : could with gifts of money lor aeroplanes to help the Empire at war. He had done what he could, before that, to save it from what he considered to be the terrible,, danger of Nature’s revenge for neglect, waste, and abuse of the soil He had written this book; in which he denounced ; i the ■ follies that ~ are being widely punished by abnormal erosion { and, second, the use of ch ®™ ica , l “artificial" fertilisers. On this laUer,,-; point Mr Baker believed tfiat artificials gradually exhaust thesoil.t upset its balance and: health, produce^ wrongly-fed crops, and so lead to nutrition and disease. ■ His; elusions upon this contention ran well ahead of the latoratory \ field research evidenceJie had collected to support them: but he, np little.- Finally, and e very instructively, Mr-Baker.'had • to the ■ agricul - ture! of China -*hd'.'Japan for proof his positive argument, ■ that of the- soil will maintain and health indefinitely. BChmd MrBaker’s ppeachmg. indeed,rj lay . faith. Iru "the doctrines of RudoWj Steiner; -but readers stWho stop short accepting these may still draw- muen. - from ‘Mr "Baker’s book, wither ,a*; blear truth dr as impulse toQook fur?ther for it, and they wiU admire his reforming spirit. Part-of his.'life ,wagspent' in New Zealand. ; PARIS IN 1871 : ; Baris after the Prasdaii*, •-By dit Camp, by .PhiUp AWatkins.' Hutchinson. 288 pp. Through Whiteombe and Totnbf Ltd.,.-' - fit-/* *V--Maxime du CWnPt't* .contemporary-' historian, wrotem«xl»H»tiW ««» ,' orlhd^dlsorderly revolution' in Pang against the Thiers GOvernment after, the, withdrawaKof- the German troops:’ volume to difettarthe mftwfirouaund bloody per-* version Pf justice under the terror Jhafe -fisted’ froto A niid»March to the .end -o*l May. J’ovm. passed .(into of all' sorts of upstart tyrantesome fan-,£ TBi priMM.c were crammed with persons flung in Usj “hostages’* or upon any other pretext; or none; atrocious criminals.were a*-; carelessly v'releaKd. Incendiaries.-, assassins, -andr plunderers worked thrtr s will in the name of the , Severe! gn. Peopled'" Against a background , <Aj of- ndbrn ■ Stand-out. JBut most significant is thu. light thrown upon the embittered con* , fusion of the citizenry of Paris and thtj. ineptitude c." the central Government, which, after two months of fumbling, was* obliged to fight a seven-days street ."battle to restore the order it had allowed, to collapse. "Here.jio doubt,., is the reason why translator and pub-■ lisbec-submif this narrative as a warn-■ ing 'footnote to our own times.” NEW NOVELS ; , - MORRYHARN ; j[ Morryham Farm. By Joha Veillie. Putnam. 406 pp. (8/4 net.), Mr McNeillie’s knowledge of the Scottish rural scene and farming fifed gives; the realism of, finely * oba«rljrjtt'v and felt detail .to this novel.- ItJs4hh;= story of Jim Dalzie. whose father toot- - a poor farm in the struggle for pendence and' and eventually, an against; adversity.'' paraly- M sis crippled Mort but only hardened - a r up, .have the independepcevto which mastery wiltpass 'to, him; This situation;;’ teaches.; a point 6f ?<SetnalJS which: theureader’s vision,ol-iwtent edyis’sharpened by tpe oenutlfui and. Simple.account at Jim’S courtship andhis bringing home"* the.-wjffe against ■= whom Morrs hate was concentrated. - FOREST .{ The Last Hunt. By Maurice Geocvoix. . ■ Allen and Unwin, f 229 pp. ; (7/6 net.) This story is-fantastic but exquisitely ' truthful; touching, enchanting,. queerly ; ; memorable: A nuntsman .and a stag are Its: chief characters; -the. strange friendship between them, the contest,; that Jay between superb beast and--; superb huhter alone, and the issue In the. kill, at last, which was .. as much ": surrender as triumph—they are ; its theme, developed with an" extraor- , dinary, vital delicacy and strength of . imagination, which brings men. beasts, ' and the-deep forest of, Orfosses to ; distinct and complex life. - -ahe translation, by .Warre Bradley "Wells, reaches a wonderful integrity. ■ '■■■ V STEPHANIE AND PETER Market of Venus. By Mary Richmond. Robert Hale Ltd. 248 pp. (8/-.) Through Whiteombe and Tombs Ltd, * / Miss Richmond cleverly uses war- . time occasions in Her plot to bring to : a happy conclusion the love affair of ■ Stephanie and Peter, parted by their own pride, mischief, .and mischance. Stephanie gave Peter up for lost in the torpedoed cruiser Ciirzon;; but - when she came to-be innocently in- / volved in a Gestapo spy scheme,, the one man who could wipe out. the sad . past for her was, not missing among her rescuers. WESTERN ’ ■' Red Clark for - Luck. By Gordon Young. Hutchinson. 224 pp. (8/-.) Through Whiteombe 1 ana Tombo -■ Ltd. ’ Red-Clark ofTueoco.as'cheerfulas he is toiigh, fouiid a heavy job on hi« hands; when he»went; • down to the Wallace ranch at Old Bill Wallace was being fleeced by his brother Jeff, who stood in well with . the. bad Bradleys; and Jeff was -not easy to head off. TTiis story is as lively ’ as the Western can be.