A MAN OF MANY PARTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

A MAN OF MANY PARTS

Candid Autobiography

By G.H

"UNFINISHED Journey" is a remarkable book, It is the autobiography of a man, born in the slums of Mcrthyr, who became in turn butcher-boy, coal-miner, striker, soldier, actor, book-salesman, paid agitator, soapbox-orator, navvy, dramatic lecturer, and representative of the National Liberal Federation at Geneva. After that he was back on the dole again for a time and is now a successful author. Jack Jones lias indeed been" many tilings, lias apparently boon good and hardworking at most of them, yet has been a failure who always slipped back on to the dole. He seems to have ability but 110 real convictions. He has been in turn paid advocate for Labour, for Liberalism, for Communism, and for Mosloy's New Party. Ho makes no pretences—he went where the money was, although he did break with Moslcy through disgust because of the lack of integrity in the party. He has rubbed shoulders with many well-known people: Lloyd George, Stanley Baldwin, Iveir Hardy, * Winifred Holtby, Ramsay Macdonald, Lady Rhondda, Ellen Wilkinson, among others. But the chief interest in the book is not .political. The heroine and principal character is "Our mam," his" mother, who in good times and bad was the bulwark tlut held the family together, made 0110 shilling do the work of two, battled to get the children in free to the local theatre whenever a play came to town, begged food for them from door to door during the depression, and made a home wherever she was. :

Whatever else Mr. Jones may be, lie is a born writer, aiul the story of his boyhood in the Welsh coal-mining town comes alive in remarkable fashion. His stylo is rugged and individual, careless of grammar, devoid of recognised technique. But it is fresh and full of vigour, and specially suited to the buoyant, restless temperament of the writer. The life ho has led would have embittered most people, but Jack Jones is devoid of rancour and self-pity. He accepts life as it comes, a fighter with a splendid recovery, an erring follow who was capable of wrecking his'home by a sudden gambling mania, but pulling it together again by » dauntless effort, only to let it slip once more through lack of real, staying-power.

With three such books a "Rhondda Roundabout," "Black Country," and "Unfinished Journey" to his credit, the future seems assured for Mr. Jones, but ho is quite capable of letting it slip through his fingers.

"Unfinished .Tourney," autobiography of Jack Jones. (Hantish Hamilton.)