BOOK NOTICES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17575, 17 March 1919, Page 6

BOOK NOTICES

"Hie Great Hunger," from the Norwegian of Johan Bojcr. London: Hodder and Stoughton. / Peer Trocn, as a irshild, learns hunger for food and clothes. One of the world's outcasts, he seldom gets- enough to eat, and never enough covering to keep out the cold; but he is the ringleader in a,ll the mischief that goes on in his little fishing village. Peer, the youth, learns the hunger for knowledge, and by constant struggle gains a place in a technical school, whore by shper perseverance, he gains the knowledge which is to make him an engineer. Peer, the man, learns of tho hunger for power and wealth, and by continued perseverance and hard work he gains both these, and settles down to onjo.y his life.. He then kuiffors the hunger 'for love, marries, and has a family; but the old hunger for power oomes back, and he loses all, only in the end to find a satisfaction in the findincr of the secret of all life, and ho gor-s " to sow corn in his enemy's field in order to bring 'God into his life." Ho finds that he cannot have love and happinc*-, as well as thes power over the steel wbich makes his bridges and railroads; and so he learns tho great lesson that this is the world of concentrated effort, and that what a man desires and seeks for with all his heart ho will attain. "My.German Prison." Bv Captain H. G. Gilliland, , Royal N. Lancashire Regiment. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Captain Gilliland was captured through tho failure of his scouts to keep in touch with his flanks in the early part of the war. He remained a prisoner for two and a-half years, and suffered untold misery through tho criminal neglect of his captors. He had a bullet through his ankle and three of his ribs were broken; the foot gave him but little trouble in spite of the that hp had to walk miles on it; but the ribs pierced the lung, and it was over a f/oar before tho Germans operated, by which time he was nearly dead. Whether they would have operated at all if the Swiss and Americans had not come to his aid.is doubtful. Tho extraordinary part of the narrative is that he was able to buy almost anything he needed, and that his parcels from home came regularly. After his operation he gained strength, and as soon as he was able to walk he took the first chance of escaping. This he did by jumping off a train, and, with three companions, he walked five days to the Dutch boundary. Once over the fugitives were treated as kings. What was specially grateful to Captain Gilliland was that he had a bath for the first time in two and a-half years. "Life in a Tank." -By Richard Haigh, M.C., captain in a tank corps. London : Hodder and Stoughton. "Tanks! To."the uninitiated the name conjures up a picture of an iron monster breathing fire and J exhaling / bullets and shells." This new branch of . the service with no traditions to build unon, no history, and no laws of tactics, has brought out the individual man, and made hiui 6tand out. The tank grew out of the armoured motor car, and -the fighting men inside are cooped up in a space which reminds one of the old torture chambers, in which there was no room to-sit, stand, or lie. Once inside with the door shut, each man has to remain in an atmosphere of petrol and oil, unable to see - where he iS going, for only tiie officer in charge can see when the tank is closed down. All the time" bullets and shell splinters and bombs are striking the sides, and the men inside hear only an unholy din; all others are given bv signal, and none _ ever knows when soma accident, such a direct hit, or a breakdown, will disable his iron home, and when he will either be ca>ptured or killed, as ho tries to escape; or even worse, the petrol may catch fire and he will be roasted alive. Such is the description of tank fighting! The men who are engaged in it endure °a strain _ which must, even under the best conditions, render them, unfit for further work after a few years.

The Price of a Throne." By Joseph Hocking. London: Hodder and Stoughton. .The /story of tho -visit of Captain John Penrose, D.5.0., and Lieutenant Teddy. Onslow to Greece, the adventures' which thev experienced, and the aid they received from an unknown influence at the .most critical ■ moment, will certainly help to pass away weary hours for any reader who takes up this book. The book is chiefly composed. of the adventures of Teddy, who, by the use of well forged documents, passes off as a Swiss, and obtains a position r as the personal private secretary to the Greek Prime Minister. Although he has never had any .training in diplomatic work he seems to be able to do \by instinct what the Secret Service men with many years of spy work to their cerdit are unable to : accomplish. Even .Count Karolides, the aeus ex machina," is unable to penetrate his disguise, and we feel that he earns his rewards as well as the hand of the most accomplished if not excessively beautiful 1 Priscilla Alden, the daughter of a very Able American, who himself, takes a part in exposing the Greek Kind's duplicity We are not at all; surprised that John Penrose marries tho girl for whose sake he passes through hair-raismg adventures, but the way rn which Tom Pollard, the' hero of a previous book, comes to light at the critical moment with the necessary information when he is supposed to be fighting in France, is what might be called an unexpectea pleasure. - "U-Boat Devilry" By C. k. Bateman. \. London: Hodder and Stoughton. This book consists of a series of survivors' 'stories which. go to prove how the German commanders never, or. rarely, allowed the passengers of a doomed 'ship a moment to escape. That they seemed to enjoy . hearing the cries of perishing women and children seems certain, and that they deserve punishing is also certain. In contrast with their behaviour the author has added stories of the heroism of the /English officers and men of the torpedoed boats. These men were dauntless in difficulty and hopeful in adversity. In ■ this sense, this is a story of the Sdercantile Marine SeWice, of the men who go to sea to earn a living and to provide food for their country, of men who*are not employed to fight, bat to follow a. peaceful occupation. How peaceful that occupation may be during a war is shown by these stories, and we .know full well how these men, who endure hardship and peril of the deep in order to carry the commodities. we need from other lands, face death and disaster when called upon to do so in their daily life; but this little book tells •us the story again in a different guise. " The • Daring Daughter." By .. Cyrus Townsend Brady. London: Stanley Paul and Co. r Lady .Katherino danranald, the last of her race, sets out to obtain from James II the pardon of her father, the Earl of Clanranald. She is supplied with clothes, a horse, and money; and she plans to rob the messenger who is bringing the warrant, in order that she may have time to approach Jumes himself, and bribe him to pardon her father. Slhe first shoots the messenger and burns the warrant; then, as h 3 is not badly hurt, makes love to him.< He is arrested 'and she goes to Durham to see the King, who admires her shapely figure and lays a trap by which he catches his pretty bird, bat the trap is not strong enough to kee<p out her lover, who rescues her from the King just as she is about to commit suicide. Hie book is a pleasant little love story of an exceedingly capable young ladv who has the good luck to strike help always when it' is most needed. "How Foch Makes War." By E. George Marks. Sydney.: Dymock's Book Arcade. Napoleon's tactics and strategy have formed the theme of the classics of all military authority for, many years, and one of tho most earnest students of these'" was Field-marshal Foch, the Allied generalissimo. How much he learned, and how well he applied what he had-learned, is pointed out in this most interesting little bode As Mr Marks points out, General Foch is not a tactician, but a strategist of the first order. How he fou S ht for unity in tho ranks of the Allies ;how clearly he pointed out that m order to win there must be one policy and one commander, and not half a dozen; _ how he himself was appointed generalissimo in March, 1918; and how He won the war and why, thrills the blood of those who read. The Marne and the two batfies fought there will ever be a perpetual reminder of his genius.

"Medicinal Herbs and Poisonous Plants" By David Ellis, D.Sc.. Ph.D., etc. London: Blackie and Son., Dr Ellis tries to teach us how to olassify the herbs and plants which grow around ns ana to recognise in them tho oarativo agents of Nature. As ho gives the common names, as well as the Latin, none need • Sir to . tai » n P his book on the trabjcot. The_ diagrams are not only numerous, but also instructive and jyvoll drawn. Tlic methods of, grouping and classifvingp that are adopted are simple and cosily understood.

"Tho Year Between." By Doris Egerton Jones. London: OasseU and Co. John Beresford, mining' expert and in'or a big company, finds himself at xiiilmjip Station without any means of getting to town other than on foot. On his way he finds a buggy, a beautiful girl, and a drunk man. .From this incident a story wovon carries the reader throngn P^g cs of wirpnses and amazement. We havo the usual lovers and tie unusual; we ave marriage which was and was not a marriage; and we have the Australian blackfellow painted with a rather too liberal brush.