FAMILY PRIDE

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26599, 8 December 1951, Page 3

FAMILY PRIDE

[From the “Manchester Guardian"'} “Is there another Galsworthy?” a personal advertiser has been asking in that famous column of “The Times’ which seems to be the last rallyingpoint of the traditional amplitude and oddity of the English. He wants to “contact an author of repute who would be interested in and anxious to use material provided by the lives, achievements, and mistakes of four generations of a family.” This should hearten writers who are always complaining about their narrowing horizons. But they are a disenchanted breed, likely to find cause for alarm as well as hope in this news of four generations in search of an author. What will be expected of him? Will he not roll a suspicious eye at the menace as well as the promise implicit in those “mistakes”? He will certainly ask himself, with a nervousness that does not necessarily go with humility, just how deep the searching eye of truth dare explore. What would the original Forsytes have thought of the original Galsworthy, for all that he was a gentlemanly sort of fellow in his way? Authors, however reputable, are. shifty and unreliable characters in the eyes of Forsytes. Would not Galsworthy, had he been discovered by instead of discovering his material, have spent the rest of his life dodging cold Forsyte stares and wincing at letters written by Forsyte solicitors on behalf of injured Forsyte clients? These thoughts may be unjust: the family atmosphere is no doubt different now. It is something to admit mistakes. But authors make mistakes too and can rarely afford them. The successful applicant will no doubt get his terms of reference clear.

Margaret Jarvis, an English expert in the theory and practice of physical education, turns her ingenuity and talent for explanation to good effect in MUSIC XL. GAMES FOR INFANTS (Faber anfl Faber, 180 pp). The book portrays 77 imaginative and technique dances for children aged four to seven. Each dance and game is clearly exSlained, and each is illustrated by gures. Kindergarten teachers and teachers of primer classes will find the book useful and stimulating to their own idea*.