LITERARY NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 126, 23 November 1935, Page 30

LITERARY NOTES

.BOOKS AND AUTHORS

*. Mr. John Connell, author of' David Go Back," is a leader .writer on a London evening newspaper. The theme of his book is interesting^—a revolution in Scotland against. English rule. 'Charles Mallet, who has written a ■ biography of Anthony' Hope, the novelist, was M.P. for Plymouth forsome years. .At one time he was Financial Secretary to the War Office. He was a lifelong friend of Anthony Hope. Mr. Herman Bernstein, the American journalist and author, has died in New York, aged 59. Among the books which he published are translations from several Russian authors—Tolstoy, Gorki, Andreyev—and "The History of a Lie," in which he exposed the antiJewish forgery known as the "Protocols of Zion,"' recently the subject of a legal action at Berne. Mr. H. G. Wells has published through the-Cresset Press, two books) which are described as "literary phenomena." • Mr. Wells calls them "film treatments." He has taken two of his own filmed stories, "The Shape of Things to Come" and "The Man Who Could Work Miracles," and turned them into print again. But they are as distinct from the original stories as is the novel of a play from the written play itself. The technical details of the film are given in such a way as not to obtrude on the reader. A biography of Frederick Delius, the composer, by his sister, is announced. It is an intimate personal portrait, the biography of a brother rather than an estimate.of the musician. It tells of the early life of the Delius .family in Bradford, of how. the father continuously opposed his son's enthusiasm for a-musical career and established him in commerce instead, and how Grieg invited the obstinate old father to a dinner in London, told him he was committing a crime in attempting to stop his son's career, and persuaded him to release him. Miss Clare Delius reveals that, although Delius was struck with a disabling malady, he faced all with courage and gaiety. A new book by Mr. Hilaire Belloc is . announced. as in preparation by Messrs. Cassell. It is to be called "The Battle Ground." It deals witn Syria and the Holy Land regarded as the scene of conflict between, the main opposing powers of Western civilisation for more than three thousand years. The first battle is between the desert and 'the habitable land. The next is the expansion of Egypt, and the recoil, in which the Assyrians drove out the Egyptians. Then come the struggles between Persian and Greek civilisations, the story of Israel, the Mohammedan domination, and the Crusades. Finally Mr. Belloc deals with the modern importance of the lan 4» still the scene of conflict between opposing interests—Zionists, the French, and the Arabs. "Adrienne Toner," "Tante," and "The Little French Girl" were among the best-known novels of Anne Douglas Sedgwick (Mrs. Basil de Selincourt), who died recently. "Autumn Crocuses," was one of her books of short stories. She was born in the American New England, but she was educated chiefly in France and in England, where she had lived for many years. Her work showed the influence of Henry James and of the best French authors. It had subtlety, and often ironic humour. The falsity of appearance was one of her favourite themes. In "Adrienne Toner" a woman who appeared at first to be unpleasantly assertive, was shown to have charm. According to "Franklin Kane," there could be merit in the uncouth; and "Valeric Upton" indicated that a "woman who was regarded as a saint was of another order.