New Fiction

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28630, 5 July 1958, Page 3

New Fiction

The Long Fight. By D. A. Rayner. Collins. 253 pp.

Though written in the form of a novel, this is the true story of a naval engagement between an English and a French frigate in the Indian Ocean during the Napoleonic wars. The San Fiorenzo was sent to protect three India merchantmen, laden with cargo for Britain, against a prowling French raider, the Piemontaise, which was known to be on their track. Riding out an appalling storm the British ship arrived at Galle with a third of her crew so sick with malaria that they had to be landed, and this having been done the San Fiorenzo started out again immediately to find the merchantmen and perform her escort duties. The Piemontaise meantime was tailing her quarry, and with a large supplementary crew of lascars had all her plans laid for boarding and manning her three rich prizes. When she sighted the San Fiorenzo the latter was moving into position where she would be between the French ship and the convoy, and battle became inevitable. Though undermanned, and with fewer guns than her adversary the British ship had the greater speed, and this, combined with superb judgment of her captain, finally decided the issue of a desperate and magnificently described three-day battle. The author skilfully projects the reader into the minds of these tough mariners, both French and English, of 150 years ago, and the reasoning which both employed to outwit and outfight a worthy opponent. Commander Rayner eschews heroics, and if the technicalities of this narrative are beyond the understanding of the landlubber he. can at least appreciate the tactics, seamanship and joyous will to do battle of navies operating under sail.

Azael And The Children. By Madelaine Duke. Cape. 224 pp.

The aim of this very powerful novel is to expose the evils of propaganda when directed at the minds of children. Peter Raine, a young British soldier, is shot dead in a Cyprus street, and though he had lived in the island as a child, and had many friends, the murderer evades identification and capture. Aristos Solomonides, a boy of sixteen, who had been a close friend of Peter’s, is near at hand when the shooting takes place, but though he sees Peter stagger and fall he does not immediately realise what has happened. When it is evident that his friend is dead Aristos makes up his mind to discover the murderer and the motive for an apparently senseless crime. He knows that Eoka, the Greek terrorist organisation, has been busy disseminating propaganda in his school, and that leaflets inciting teenagers to acts of violence have been distributed freely. Though he grieves for his friend, and is unimpressed by anti-British slogans, he is obliged in the interests of his own safety to join the excitable groups of youthful conspirators who, under instruction from an anonymous “Leader.” are prepared to work for the. terrorists. By his own oblique methods Aristos discovers the truth, but cannot find it in his heart to betray either the “Leader” or the perpetrator of Peter’s murder. The study of character throughout is penetrating and sympathetic, and neither the Eoka partisans nor the sorely-tried British occupying force is held up to undue criticism, but the evils of a calculated corruption of young minds is im-i plicit throughout