PUBLIC LIBRARIES BOOKS OF THE WEEK

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 18, 21 July 1934, Page 24

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

Tho Chief Librarian of the Wellington Public Library has chosen "Tho Balliols," by Alee Waugh, and "A Good Purpose," by Dorothea Conycrs, as the books of the week, and has furnished the following reviews:—

The Balliols are established wine merchants in the West End of London, with a. Viscount as chairman. Edward Balliol succeeds his father just before the war, having a sister, Stella-^-a militant Suffragette; a wife, Jane; two sons, Hugh and Francis; and three daughters, Lucy, Euth, and Helen. Mr. Waugh divides the book up by giving a general description of them and of their building a new house in Hainpstead (now Golders Green); the wine business and the characters in it; and then devotes separate chapters to each one of the children as their destinies are shaped. He then brings them together again: Lucy having married a Malayan lawyer after dangerous Suffragette ac: tivities; Buth marrying the young Viscount; Hugh badly wounded and gassed, Francis leaving school after the war and going voluntarily into a big general store. Helen, the baby, is brought in at the end with an episode of her own contriving, which, however, might well have been left out, the book having achieved its meaning and purpose at the point of Hugh's death.

Mrs. Balliol is perhapsl the* most shadowy character of the family, and her inattention to the everyday demands of life is fitly concluded by her final deyotion to spiritualism. In Hugh is centred the main interest, however familiar his story may be: Public school, the war, an unfortunate love affair with one of '■.hose complacently obliging young women one so often reads about, and then the return, wounded and only half fit, to a declining business and a world that no longer offers any real attractions. One is given the impression that things could not have happened any differently. No character is over-stressed. The story of: their reactions is outspoken, but not crude, and we know them to be the inevitable occurrences in tho history of a well-connected middle-class family of the varying decades. Altogether a very readable book. . AN AMUSING TALE. In her latest novel, "A Good Purpose," Miss Dorothea Conyers provides a story of exhilarating entertainment. When Lefroy Dereham was left a small legacy, it was stipulated that it was to bo used for "a good purpose." Lefroy was-a pleasant, indeed a captivating young man, and his one dream was hflnting. His legacy could therefore serve no better purpose, he considered, than tho purchase of a pack of hounds. So ho set to work and soon found himself master a small pack, despite his inexperience in hunting!. Naturally the hero is plunged into many adventures. How, finally, thesp are overcome; how Lofroy falls in love, and how he persuades his very matter-of-fact lawyer that his money has' been spent to good purpose, is the theme of this 'original story. Miss Conyers well knows how to .introduce complications and; amusing issues into her stories, and the originality of her plot in this caso provides her with magnificent opportunities. . . : RECENT LIBRARY ADDITIONS. Other titles selected, from recent accession lists are as follows:—General: "No Roads Go By," by M. R. White; "Queen Victoria and Her Ministers," by J. A. R. Marriott; "Methods of Choosing a Career," by P. M. Earle; "The Jungle in Sunlight and Shadow," by F. W. Champion; "Music in My Time," by Hubert J. Foss; "Kenneth Grahame," by R. Chalmers; "Titans of Literature," by B. Rascoe. Fiction: "Shadow-on the Wall," by H. C. Bailey; "The Ginger Griffin," by Ann Bridge; "Winds of Heaven," by Nelle -M. Scanlan; "And Quiet Plows the Don," by M. Sholokhov; "Wild Strawberries," by A. Thirkell; "Morosco," by R. Pert wee; "Three Men and Diana," by Kathleen Norris; "The Yellow Joss," by I. Idriess. . '