BARBED WIT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23275, 18 February 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

BARBED WIT

"SUPERIOR PERSONS" GUYED He's a villa de luxe young man, An opinion from books young man. A tell-you-the-datery, Tooting Debatery, Travel-by Cook's young man. . . . Thus (with apologies to W. S. Gilbert), Mr. G. W. L. Day describes the "Half-Bake" in "Outrageous Bliapsodies" —a book of amusing verses burlesquing many well-known types oi people. Few familiar figures escape,Mr, Day's satire—The Board of Directors, the Detectives, the Pathetic Film Star, the English Wife, the Gold Diggers, the Surrealist, and the Low-Brow —all are fair game for his barbed wit. Of the Surrealist, Mr, Day says:My love is a Surrealist, she's one of (he Elcct-o, She paints her hair with Prussian Blue and sketches with Inecto. And when she wishes to express her Superconscious Soul-ah. She models in carbolic soap, or sometimes Gorgonzola.

Mr. Day knows tho vulnerable snot of each subject in his collection of "superior persons," and attacks it with penetrating humour. The illustrations by Vicky have caught perfectly the spirit of his verses. "Outrageous Rhapsodies," by G. W. L. Day. (Herbert Jenkins.)