SPRING IN THE TYROL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20922, 11 July 1931, Page 8 (Supplement)

SPRING IN THE TYROL.

A NEW CECIL ROBERTS.

Despite the sophistication of many post-war novels, or perhaps, because of it, there is an eager public awaiting the novelist who is content to supply modem versions of the old fairy-tales, to carry " tired people to the Islands of the Blest." " Pamela's Spring Song," .is unashamedly old-fashioned in its theme.

. Pamela Kemp, a tired typist in a London office, one cheerless, foggy morning catches sight -of a glowing poster of snowy mountains and flower-starred Alpine meadows, with tha legend, " Why not spend spring in the Tyrol?" As Pamela has only £2 a week and an aged grandmother with a small pension, and a taste for whisky, the chance of accepting the suggestion seems remote., But the old lady dies suddenly, and with the hundred pounds of her life insurance, Pamela resolves upon a crovHed hour—to be accurate,® six weeks —of glorious life, and hies self to the Schloss Edelskein, where an attractive Austrian count has turned his ancestral home into a hotel, with all modern comforts. The story proceeds in the good old way. The Tyrolese background is painted with intimate appreciation, and though the characters never quite come to life, the tale is told with spirit and some charm. We need hardly say that Pamela does not go back to her dismal London lodgings. Reckless maidens who spend their all in realising a dream, are rarely forced in such tales to return to the drab realities of life. " Pamela's Spring Song" should have a wonderful sale among London's legion, of beauty-starved 'and romance-hungry typists.

" Pamela's Spring Song," by Cecil Roberts. (Hodder and Stoughtop.)