PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 5 October 1936, Page 8

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED

There is a refreshing and entertaining sprightliness about “Rearguard Actions,” a new novel by C. L. SpearBaigent, recently published by Methuen and Company, in which we meet an amusing array of well-drawn characters It is disclosed by the Christchurch “Press” that the penname C. L. Spear-Baigent disguises two young men of Christchurch, Messrs C. S. Spear and L. A. Baigent, who have successfully collaborated in producing “Rearguard Actions,” a clever conversation effort. The action is set, or the talking is done, mainly on the island of San Arco, a tourist resort in temperate seas. The reader is introduced to the scene and to two or three of the characters as the tourist ship approaches the island at dusk; he leaves scene and characters when the story ends with a surprise on board an outgoing tourist ship. Within the time and space limits of a week or so a great many things happen. The events are marshalled cleverly; no one seems to lack energy and those whose conversation is empty give many splendid opportunities to those who are blessed with wit. To read the book at a sitting is -a somewhat merry-go-round experience. As “The Press” comments, very occasionally the double authorship may be given away by this characteristic: an incident or a conversation whirls to its conclusion with bewildering speed, so ’hat the reader imagines the authors gleefully brightening each other’s already scintillating dialogue. The title is based on a quotation from the “Westminster Gazette”: “The worst of all battles to fight a rearguard action.”