LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 23, 28 January 1928, Page 21

LITERARY NOTES

Mr. A. A. Mills lias made more than £25,000 from his "Christopher Robin" books. In his first year as a writer he earned £liO. The next year he made £120, and the following year £200. Pugilistic encounters arc a feature of the novels by Mr. Jeffery Farnol, who has used much of the fruit of his research in a book entitled "Famous Prize Fights." This will bo published by Sampson Low in the English spring. New Zealand readers wiTi bo interested to learn that Miss Rosemary Rces's now novel, "Wild, Wild Heart," is first to appear in serial form in the "Evening Standafl," starting probably about February. The London correspondent of "The Post" feels quite safe in stating that "no other New Zealand novelist has had the distinction of having two serials published in a leafling London journal in the space of a year. m It was only in the beginning of 1927 that "Life's What You Make It" ran its course as a serial in the "Evening Standard." Messrs. Chapman and Hall will publish "Wild, Wild Heart," and it will probably be in circulation about April. The GO tli Annual Volume of'Whitaker" is larger than any of its predecessors and extends to 916 pages, exclusive of the Index, while its familiar green cover bears a largo-type calendar for the convenience of those who use the volume as a desk or table book. Many additions have been made to the. present issue including statistics relating to Building Societies in Great Britain, Employment and Unemployment, British and Foreign Trade, and other matters of general interest, while Questions of the Day arc dealt with in short articles, and these are followed by Annual Summaries of the Year's Weather, Storms, and Floods, Science and Invention, Art, "Music, the Drama, Wills proved in 1!J26-1927, British and Indian Railways, and the World's Shipping. At the request of the Pasteur Institute, writes Mr. Ferdinand Ossendowski in "The Breath of the Desert," the French authorities have forbidden monkey-hunting in their colonies. Prior to this prohibition, the Kabyles exterminated them because of the great damage they wrought in their fields. Now they are forced ■to adopt a different course of procedure. Catching a monkey in a trap, they sow on him a red vest with little bells attached and then let him loose. The unfortunate monkey hastens to his home, but his fellowcreatures, scared by the strange appearance of their kinsman, flee from him so persistently that the district is soon relieved of their undesirable presence. "The Greville Diary, Including Passages Hitherto Withheld from Publication," has been published by Doubleday, Page, New York. An examination of the personal belongings of George IV., after the death of that monarch is dealt with and it is stated that "there was never anything like the quantity of trinkets and trash that they found. He had never given away nor parted with anything. There was a prodigious quantity of hair—women's hair—of all colours and lengths, some locks with the powder and pomatum clinging to them, heaps of women's gloves, gages d'amours, which he had got at balls, and with the perspiration still marked on the fingers, notes, and letters in abundance. . . the whole was destroyed." "Captain Donne's book on rod-<ishing is enough to keep every good fisherman awake o' nights, wondering amazedly what it must feel like to live in New Zealand," thinks the "Baptist Times" roviewer. Even the layman must-dream of rod and creel and of prodigious lines like monster cables hauling in leviathan time after time; and his story is duly authenticated with dates, names, weights, and even photographs. It must not be thought, though, that this is a collection of fishermen's stories, though we find some of the best. It is a serious addition to scientific knowledge worthy of respect, and it appears that what Mr. Donne does not know.of the subject can be dispensed with." Mr. J. A. Spender, in his "Life, Journalism, and Politics," tells this of Lord Northcliffe: "His special prido was to be first in the field with coming things, and Sutton Place garage was full to overflowing with motor-cars when they were still a dangerous novelty. ITe loved to astonish and ii.larm his friends by whirling them in these strange machines to what then seemed certain destruction, ami gave them good or bad marks according as they stood the test. I think I earned his approbation as one of the few of the writing tribo who seemd to like it, and he invited me to join him in the trials of his new 90-horse power Mercedes. Starting at half-past 0 on a Sunday morning, we went over the Hog's Back, with him at the wheel and the chauffeur on the step, and for one wild minute topped the hundred miles an hour. It was terrifying, for I sat beside him in a little seat with nothing to hold on to, but I managed to conceal my emotions and was judged to have done well."