PAMELA FRANKAU

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 21, 25 January 1936, Page 18

PAMELA FRANKAU

BRILLIANT YOUNG WRITER

With her black hair brushed straight back from her wide forehead, her dead-white face and scarlet lips, Miss Pamela Frankau is always an arresting figure in any gathering, states the London correspondent of the Sydney "Morning Herald." And her deep contralto voice, several tones lower -than that of the average woman, strikes a further note of individuality that'marks her out from the usual run, so that this brilliant young novelist challenges attention by her personality no less than by her writings.

Pamela Frankau, who-is the daughter of the well-known novelist, Gilbert Frankau, and the granddaughter of the late Frank Banby.may be said to have proceeded' so far in her life (she is now 27) by fits and starts. At the age of 18 she made a great hit with her first novel, and attained fame and an income of £1000 a year almobt without effort.

Naturally enough, she expected that to continue, and promptly planned her life on these extravagant lines. But subsequent novels failed to bring in rich rewards, and soon she had more debts than income. She took a job in an advertising agency to balance the top-heavy budget.

' Now, with the publication of her autobiography, "I Find Four People," she is away at the top of the tree again. The "Daily Mail" has chosen it as the book of the month, sales are soaring, she is pestered to write articles for papers at fabulous fees, and money is pouring in once more.

Miss Frankau is at present finishing a novel, and at the same time toying with the idea of collaborating with Merton Hodge, the New Zealand playwright, in turning his play "The Wind and the Rain," into novel form. But she is thirsting to travel—a trip round the world is her modest ambition at present!—and for the moment wor.c is merely a means to an end for her.

"When I do set off," she told me, "I am looking forward tremendously to taking in Australia in my tour. It was. my father's favourite spot in his trip. He planned to stay there for ten days, and couldn't tear himself away under six weeks."

When she told me that swimming is her favourite sport I spoke of the Sydney beaches. That settled her. "I'll work till I've made enough for a grand trip," she decided, "and then book my passage for Sydney and the surfing beaches."