ANGELS NOT PRESENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21763, 31 March 1934, Page 8 (Supplement)

ANGELS NOT PRESENT

SCHOOL'S STRANGE STAFF A striking feature of " Meet No Angels," a new novel by Mr. William Vauglian, is the delightfully appropriate title. Certain people might hold the opinion that Mr. Vaughan's characters are exclusively satyrs and demons, but it is certain that one is not introduced to any creature even remotely angelic in the strict and unfashionable use of the word. Mr. Vaughan tells the story of a preparatory school presided over by a would-be country squire who is the Is st word in bores. To the school comes a young mastar with independent means, advanced ideas on education and a pretty taste in beer and barmaids. There are two other male assistants and a fairly large female staff. Added to this the headmaster has a wife who sees in a country parson a figure of heroic lomance. There is also the inevitable scandalmonger. Never, in the immortal, words of Mr. George Robey, were there such goings on. The book has faults in plenty. There is the anti-angelic complex to start with, and the style is at times bombastic and unconvincing. Yet Mr. Vaughan is strangely readable, and there are some passages of roistering comedy. " Meet No Angels," by William Vaughan. (Chatto and Windus.)