THE BOOKMAN

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 87, 9 October 1920, Page 15

THE BOOKMAN

"Ann's First Flutter." By Boberi A. - Hamblin. London: Ueorge Allen and Unwiu.

Welcome indeed i« a book of genuine humour. "Ann's First Flutter" fulfils this description. Like th© Boole of CommoD Prayer it contains xxxix. articles, and everyone of thorn is full of fun. Ann Tottie, daughter of a provincial grocer, passes an examination entitling her to a position in the General Post Office Seivice. Here her troubles begin. Many of them are of her own making, but things just happen, and before poor Ann has been long in London she is completely enmeshed in a, net of troubles. Somehow the manages to free herselt from them all, and at the same time preserve her self-respect and primroselike innocence. There are some often rathei awkward (situations for Ann to wriggle out of j but she succeed* without ever compromising herself, arid iacidentally she deliver* her father, a. struggling grocer, from business embarras*n:ient of a particularly trying kind.

"The Tin Soldier." By Temple Bailey. Philadelphia: Peon, Publishing Company (Gordon and Gotch, Wellington).

The Tin Soldier of Hans Andersen's fairy story, who in his loneliness wanted to go to the wars, and preferred lpsing his arms and legs to standing on a, shelf, has his counterpart in Derry Drake, a young American, handsome, w<salthy, and the motherless son of old General Drake. The General is- a war veteran, whose memory of his wife is a sweet influence on his wayward life. Drake pare is a responsibility on his son, who knows him as two different men—one as a polished gentleman ruling his world by the power of his keen mind said of his money, and the other a self-made vagabond. This dual personality is the stumbling-block to Derry Drake. Hl» heart and soul is with the men in France. But he has promised his mother on h*r death-bed to stay and care for the lovable old man, whose weakness calls for all the strength and will-power of his I manhood. Hie friends question Derry's I patriotism. But Jesin M'Kenzie, the charming imp who is the pride of stern Dr. M'Kenzie, looks on him with the disdain of girlish patriotism. His love for the girl wakes in him dormant desires for service, the chance to show he is not a shirker, and the opportunity to justify himself a hero. At last, chafing under the ban, Derry Drake dons the khaki, and realises the aspirations of the "tin soldier." Mr. Temple Bailey has drawn with human touch a powerful character of the ardent young American; a nathetic study of the old General, who is 1 his son's worst enemy by reason of the weakness which calls for'filial•.protection, and lias ably drawn pictures of the strenuous days of the war.