DIARY OF 1936

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

DIARY OF 1936

Entertaining Condensed History * "The Day Before Yesterday,” by G. B. Harrison (London: Cobden- , Sanderson). Dr. Harrison, who ten years ago began to write the Elizabethan Journals series, giving a day to day account of Shakespeare’s England, has now done the same thing for the year 1936, generally acknowledged the most interesting and exciting year since the Great War. Events are set out in diary form, chosen for their news value. The whole world is the field, and every activity of man comes under review.

That year, which opened with the death of King George V and . closed with the abdication of his heir, Edward VIII, has given the reviewer ample scope. The paragraphs vary in size through the exigencies of treatment, not because one has minimum and another maximum news value. Thus the shortest entry, Friday, January 31: "So great is the cold in America that the Falls of Niagara are frozen solid” does not suffer in news value compared with a commentary on troubles in the Japanese army; but the latter requires three pages for proper elucidation. The variation in treatment supplies an attractive form to the diary. Dr. Harrison’s work is to be commended on many grounds. The diary of 1936 is convenient, accessible, attractively laid out and skilfully chosen. The book can be picked up and laid down at any time. It is a valuable and ready reference work, as well' as an entertaining condensed history.