EXPLORER AND ARTIST

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23400, 6 August 1941, Page 10

EXPLORER AND ARTIST

CURRENTBOOKS

Thomas Baines of King’s Lynn. By J, P. R. Wallis. Jonathan Cape. 351 pp. (12s 6d net.) Through Wbft. combe and Tombs, Ltd. Baines was born in 1820 and died In 1875. He made himself a name as an explorer in Africa and Australia. He wrote copiously about his experiences. He left a great mass of pocket-books' journals, letters, etc., and sketch-books drawings, and paintings in, equal measure. Sir Harry Johnston, a good judge, said 50 years ago that if was time “justice was done” ’to Baines; but he was thinking particularly <jf Baines’s clash with Dr. Livingstone, who took him as “artist-storekeeper” on the Zambesi expedition of 1858 ‘and dismissed him, probably without justice, because the stores disappeared. Mr Wallis does him justice, however] in a much wider sense. Baines’s defence against Livingstone, a strong one, is energetically set up. (The evidence clearly reveals the greater man’s chronic weaknesses as a leader.) But the quarrel and the rights and wrongs of it are not allowed to assume more than episodic importance. Baines’s versatility had been tried in various trades besides that of “ornamental . artist” before he fared to America, but it was art that stood to him best, for he became the “official artist” with the British troops in the Kaffir War. In this campaign Baines confirmed his bent: he would make' “his art and explorations,” as Mr Wallis says, “sustain one another.” When he returned to London, a paper of his on the Limpopo was read to the Royal Geographical Society, Professor Owen admired his drawings of animals, and he had hopes of being financed in an expedition on the Nile. It fell through. As “storekeeperartist” he joined Gregory’s expedition to Northern Australia, the record of which is chiefly remarkable for Baines’s courage and resource in a 700-mile sea voyage in a heavily-freighted open boat. The Livingstone adventure came next. When it closed, for Baines, he made his own way to Victoria Falls. Finally, Baines travelled through Lobengula’s country and, so impressed the shrewd Matabele king—whose intelligence also deeply impressed Baines —that he won a concession to .mine for gold. But Baines did not profit His last years were distracted by defeat after defeat of his efforts to capitalise the scheme. Meanwhile, ironically enough, his maps and his pictures were earning him golden opinions. He had no . touch for .financial success. • Baines’s drawings, reproduced in this book, are those of a close observer and an accurate draughtsman; they are pictorially effective as well. Mr Wallis makes it easy to see, not by praising but by laying out the evidence, why Baines’s work earned him the respect of men of science and, from men of action, something ;<hjore. He did not carry his, achievements to great heights: he lacked both'; the equipment and the temper,, for that But he did , his “redoubtable best,” in Mr Wallis’s good phrase, and “enjoyed himself by the way.” A field-of en- . terprise is in some respects better,.lit by the story of such a man than >by that of genius at work in it. ; J , CLERICAL ANECDOTE The Spreading Chestnut Tree. By Bennet Finck. T. Werner Laurie Ltd. 319 pp. (7/6 net.) Readers who like collections of funny stones, devouring or nibbling or (horrid thought!)' arming .themselvesfor the jester’s function, will thank Mr Finck for his industry. Those who have a special relish for the clerical anecdote will thank him with the greater warmth; for bishop, dean and chapter, supported by the nonconformist bodies, mainly possess his field. Novelty in a book like this is a minor virtue, and Mr Finck exhibits enough of it for full credit. The larger one is earned by doing justice to memorable characters and wits. Mr Finck earns that, too. Wilberforce, Temple, and Stubbs, for example, figure characteristically—Stubbs (to make a single choice) in the act of a typical leg-pull. What book, he askedthe girls of a large school, what book ginning with B was seldom out of his hands, day or night? “The Bible!” the chorus assured him. “Not at all,” said the bland Bishop. “Bradshaw!” The layman, humble or exalted, has his turn on nearly every page, however. On p. 143 it is the Scot who came home rather heavily potted. “Wha’s brought ye hame?” demanded his wife. “I’m no sairtain,” replied he, “if it was a tall man wi’ a sporran or a little fella wi’ a long grey beard.” NEW NOVELS CHINA EPISODE Hankow Return. By C, S. Archer. Collins. 380 pp. (10/6). Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. Mr Archer’s first novel is packed with good, first-hand material. That helps him to maintain the grip of his story about an American airmail fly--ing in one of Chiang Kai-shek's squadrons. Bill Monroe was hesitating, however, between th 3 Chinese cause, and the glamorous Sara Copley, when he was saved from a wrong choice by his loyalty to his friend- von Valkenhorn. This G-rman, having defied his orders from Berlin in order to go on serving China, badly needed help to uncover and defeat a dangerous conspiracy against the Chinese cause. The development of this plot, turns, the story into a large-scale thriller. As such it does well enough: but its incidental pictures of China at war and under occupation, of flying, and air-’ combat, deserve warmer praise. WELL PLANNED KILL, Storm in a Village. By Jocelyn Playfair. Hodder and Stoughton; 288' pp. (8s 3d net.) From W. S. Smart. Miss Playfair plans her killing and lays her clues with so much skill that she can disclose the murderer’s identity long before the end without slackening the tension. The minor characters are drawn boldly and surely, the major characters not so well. At her. best, Miss Playfair has something of Miss Eberhart’s gift for atmosphere: but she hcts begun to lay it on too. thickly. RHO BETA Charteris Royal. By Hubert Phillips. Gollancz. 253 pp. (8/-). Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. Mr Phillips, known to puzzle-fiends as the most ingenious contriver of their delights, here looses his ingenuity within the larger scope of a thriller.’ Nazi agents plot to get Admiralty code into their hands and send British. Navy to disaster. But Lord (“Rusty’) Bendore swings into action against them the brains, daring, and resources of his “Rho Beta” organisation, tested for sufeh a job in many a private campaign against public enemies. Phillips’s dialogue is a bit puffy, though. WARLORD OF MARS Synthetic Men of Mars. By Edgar Rice Burroughs. Methuen. 251 PP(7/6 net.) This is the seventh of the Martian romances in which' Mr Burroughs competes with his own Tarzan £ ®)? e , s ; The fearful importance of Vat No. » in tpe laboratory of the miracle-scien-tist. Ras Thavas, both to John Carter, Warlord of Mars, and to seeking enemies in the city of Morbus, determines the course of these amazing adventures. , SHORT STORIES The Temple of Nanda Devi and Other Tales. By Owen Hamilton. RoWO Hale Ltd. 293 pp. (8/-i. Through Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd. The background of some of Mr Ham* ilton’s 27 stories is the English scene, of which he has previously, J “The Heart of Hertfordshire.” .for ex- „ ample, shown himself a careiul - sensitive observer. Other- carry tnc* ■ reader under Indian skies. Some W mere sketches, some elaborately veloped. Mr Hamilton turns peace to war and from laughter 1 pathos and tragedy. When he is i ea * ambitious he succeeds best. “ , .