SOME REVIEWS IN BRIEF

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23809, 9 November 1940, Page 4 (Supplement)

SOME REVIEWS IN BRIEF

JppEMS of rare beauty are included in an enchanting collection by tho well-known Yorkshire writer, Dorothy Una Rateliffc. The fresh breatli of the English country air is mingled with the quaint lore and customs of the gipsy people and the ever new loveliness of quiet woods and singing birds. Among the finest of her verses are tho sweet, pathetic lines on "Old Mad Mike," "The Farmer's Daughter," the rollicking "Wind at -Midnight," and the moving "Mass of the Moors," whore With the fair harmonics of dusk Bises the incense of the musk, Rises the first effulgent star, Rises tho silvery bar on bar Of Agnuii Dei .... "From All the Alrts," by Dorothy Una RatclilTe. (Eyre and Spottiswoode.) Australian Scene For all the criticism of irate niusicians, Australians can produce literature. "The Woman at the Mill" only helps to prove it. We arc still waiting for something as satisfying as this collection of short stories on this side of the Tasman. The atmosphere is perfect. There is the smell of gum trees and the dust of drought, the noise of mills and shearing sheds on _ every page. Realism of a southern kind, irony all Australian, and a beauty quite unique mark the whole collection. "The Woman at tho Mill," by F. D. Davison. (Angus and Robertson.) Imperial Adventuress

Theodora's past hardly bore investigation. Unluckily there was a chronicler at Court who hated Theodora, and had a flair for such research. The result was a book of Greek history, which has attracted more than one novelist to the long adventures which strewed the past of Theodora of Alexandria (no occupation) on her way to the throne of Greek Byzantium, by the side of the great Justinian. The Poet Laureate has told the story with that attractive dash of modernism which always marks his historical style. "Basilissa." by John Masefield. (Heineniann.) Splendid Novel

"Too Dear For My Possessing," by Pamela Hansford Johnson, has its setting in Bruges, London and Paris. It tells, in masterly style, the story of Claud Pickering, from boyhood to the outbreak of war on September 3, 1939. Once again Miss Johnson has written an absorbing story about real people. Helena is a triumph of sympathetic creation. Even though it seems odd that s;he should have been attracted by the feeble-spirited creatures to whom she devoted her vitality, perhaps this is the truest touch of all. '"Too Dear For My by Pamela Hansford Johnson. (Collins.) . %»*l* *1" *l* *l* *l* *l* *** ♦♦♦