NELSON INSTITUTE AND PUBLIC LIBRARY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 24 April 1937, Page 3

NELSON INSTITUTE AND PUBLIC LIBRARY

“BY GRETA BRIDGE” (Contributed) Louis Goodrich’s book “By Greta Bridge” is an unusual tale, told unusually well. It tells of the people living by the little river Greta in Yorkshire from the time of the Roman occupation to the present day. Everyone of the five parts into which the book is divided, deals with the story of a man and a maid from each age. These episodes are separate: families and individuals loom largely for a brief season and then vanish; but throughout there are hints of what has gone before, and all the time the little Greta flows alongside their lives, very often influencing them for good or ill. In the first part, which concerns Severus Senicio, a Roman centurion and the British lady Avicia, are mentioned Estamcrius and Icetonius, watchers of the ford. The tale of the Saxon nobles who stole their Norman overlord’s hounds to hunt his deer, also mentions their followers, Stamerer and Eiceton. And so the tale flows on until at length it relates the romance of Brydette Iceton and James Starmer, descendents of those families —humble and obscure, who had lived side by side through the ages to be united in these their modern representations.

The island of Guernsey forms the setting for “Island Magic,” a pleasing novel by Elizabeth Goudge. The principal doctor of the island has two sons, the elder being strong willed like his father, the younger studious and retiring as his mother was.

The younger son marries and settles on his father’s farm. The elder leaves the island to return a wealthy man posing as a stranger. The part he plays in his brother’s affairs adds considerable interest to the story. The experiences of this family give many examples of the customs and superstitions of the islanders. “The City of Bells” is another interesting book by Elizabeth Goudge. New books that are very popular this month are “Return to Malaya,” Bruce Lockhart; “Flame in the Wind,” Margaret Pedler; and “The Secret War” by Dennis Wheatly.