"Madman's Island" First Book By Idriess

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume 8, Issue 31, 29 September 1938, Page 2

"Madman's Island" First Book By Idriess

"Madman's Island l ," published this month, is more than a modern "Robinson Crusoe"—it is lon L. Idriess's first book. "A rough diary written on an old sea-log to save myself from going mad," is the author's modest description of it. The tattered log was salvaged from the bones of the "Sea Foam's" wreck on Howick Island beach. The other man on the island, Idriess's mate, went mad, and the stores were exhausted. For six months they lived on speared giant-crab and fish, the king tides salted the fresh water, the trader with the long overdue stores misread Idriess's signal and sailed away instead of dropping anchor, a shark nipped Idriess's leg. All this amazing true story is told in "Madman's Island." Being the author's first book it has the "first fine careless rapture" of his style's glowing vitality, the first freshness of his unique power of making the reader live the author's adventures instead of just reading about them. This power, seen at its best in "Madman's Island," has made the author Australia's leading exponent of every phase of her romantic life. The reader becomes the author, suffering, enduring, exulting in these wild and splendid adventures—this is surely the art of writing. Our copy from Angus and Robertson Ltd., Sydney.