BOOK REVIEWS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 271, 11 August 1943, Page 6

BOOK REVIEWS

A Novel Of The War In

Greece And Crete

"Signed With Their Honour,” a novel by James Aldridge (London: Joseph. Melbourne: Wyatt and Watts). Mr. Aldridge must have tlie stuff of many novels in him. Aged 21 when war broke out, be has seen action as a war correspondent in Finland, Norway, Albania, Greece, Egypt, Crete aud North Africa. He was three times wounded and eventually was invalided home to Australia, going from there to the United States to work for the magazine “Time. He is now again a war correspondent on one of the ba t.tlef routs. While Mr. Aldridge was in the United States, he wrote this novel, a novel about airmen who, as Stephen Spender has so aptly said, “left tlie vivid air signed with their honour. Mostly the scene is Greece, where a squadron of Gladiators is stationed, to assist the Greeks in their light against the Italians. It is a token force only, hopelessly outnumbered by. the enemy machines. The author tells of the gradual elimination of ‘the flying members of the squadron as, one by one, they tail to return from operational flights. His chief character is Flight Lieutenant Quayle, an Englishman who meets a Greek girl in Athens, meets her again at a first-aid post in Jauina and falls in love with her. Quayle is shot, down behind the Italian ‘lines, makes his way back to friendly territory at the time when the Germans invaded Greece and finally reaches Athens in company with the girl, whom he succeeds in evacuating to Crete. There they are married and there also they are finally separated when the Germans over-run the island. Mr. Aldridge has a great story to tell and in the main tells it. well, though with too many words ami some unnecessary detail. A practised novelist would have made the characterization more precise, yet might not have defined so clearly the unstable relationships in time of danger of men who live and light together. The dialogue is good and a difficult love story is well handled, though with restraint. Mr. Aldridge is at his best where there is action to be described and as he provides plenty ot. it; he is able to hold the reader’s attention firmly to the last. page. „ „ . . “Remembered For Ever, a tragicomedy in three acts, by Bernard McGinn (London: Allen and Unwin).. There, is little news from Eire, but the impression given by the literary output of her writers is anything but happy, implying that that, unfortunate country failed to throw off her- troubles when she freed herself from British rule. Mr. McGinns play has the.ironical bitterness that characterizes the' work of modern Irish playwrights. He tells a story of unemployment, hunger and dishonest politicians. The play has an ingenious and interesting plot providing many opportunities which tlie author exploits well, if not to the full. The central character is one of Dublin’s unemployed who was a brilliant Republican leader during the Black and Tan rebellion. Because he has an illegitimate daughter, he arranges to be reported killed and takes the motherless baby to Dublin. When the play opens this girl is grown up and knows nothing of her father’s history. One day the father reads that a memorial to him is being erected at the spot where he is supposed to have fallen. The politician who is to read the oration at the unveiling ceremony is .the landlord who is trying to evict him for not paying his rent. He decides to go to the ceremony.. The play has great dramatic possibilities. Hie author is hard and disillusioned, but Ins characters are real. Mr. Lennox Robinson provides a frank foreword in which he declares, and he ought to know, that this unusual play acts very well and is not as difficult to produce as would appear at first sight. He obviously has faith in and expects great things ot this new protege of the Abbey Theatre. “First Aid,” by Fritz Kahn, M.D. (Sydney: Angus and Robertson). As a popular exponent of scientific subjects, Dr. Kahn has a considerable reputation and anyone who peruses his basic first-aid course will quickly realize how he gained it. This is a picture book with illustrations as fascinating as they are instructive, and a text, the meaning of whies is always immediately evident. A child could easily understand the fundamentals of first-aid as they are set out here and older readers will appreciate the emphasis Dr-. Kahn places on improvization when bandages, splints and padding are wanted urgently.