PUBLIC LIBRARIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 72, 21 September 1940, Page 19

PUBLIC LIBRARIES

BOOKS OF THE WEEK

The City Librarian has chosen "The Bird in the Tree," by Elizabeth Goudge, as the book of the week, and has furnished the following review:—

Miss Goudge has used glamour and romance in a piece of fine writing without in any way losing control of the clear direction of her story. She has always been at her best in treating of feminine characters, and has an especially light touch when dealing with children. There is sympathy as • well as sometimes a little gentle cynicism in her unfolding of the tangles of family relationships, and the situations into which such relationships sometimes lead her characters. "The Bird in the Tree" is the story of a family of Eliots who live at Damerosehay, an ancient house on the Hampshire Estuary. Lucilla, a sort of matriarch and beautiful grandmother, sits in the centre of the web, and it is upon her that the family attention is focused, and around her that the byplay of events swirls.

The complications of the story are principally concerned with the doings of her grandchildren. Her son has been divorced, and his children are with her at Damerosehay. • Things get very tangled when another grandchild falls in love with the children's mother, his former aunt by marriage. There are only five years between them. Such a blow, to the unity of the family would be a severe one, and Lucilla invites Nadine, the former daughter-in-law, to discuss the matter with her. Once in the atmosphere of Damerosehay Nadine begins to succumb as Lucilla had. realised she \vould. The well-drawn characters and the individual atmosphere are an added attraction to a very pleasing story.