SHEILA KAYE-SMITH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20075, 16 April 1927, Page 17

SHEILA KAYE-SMITH.

You stand in a yellow stream of sun* shine, perhaps, on a ridge of the down* near Cbanctonbury, and you says Its raining over Brighton way. And that sumo up my first impression of bheiia Kaye-Smith. For I saw her eyes at once, and long before the rest 6! her. nor grey eyes are like far-off falling rain; they hold a story of happenings, somewhere ... not here . . • at the same time as now, maybe, but not here - Over there, where it s raining. Well, and next I saw her hat. Naturally I mention that enormous floppety nine-and-elevenpenny leghorn wheel, with its little black velvet crown, because it was gracefullly presented to me not long afterwards, and is still, after twelve years, in hard daily use though the crown, oaten and re-eaten by many puppies, is. in its seventh incarnation; my household of Italian servants call it “the hat, of the signorina no, excuse, of the Signora Sheila ! - ’ and believe that all English authoresses wear hat© like than when they attain a certain eminence. The secret is more or less everybody’s secret, nowadays, that this celebrated novelist of the soil is outwardly not in the very least “like her books.’ It is of no avail taking her into a wet ploughed field and expecting her to roll in it, ecstatically chewing the sod. She has no stalwart breadth of brawn and muscle to drive the plough as tirelessly as any man, and despise the cushioned arm-chair afterwards. On the contrary, Sheila Kaye-Smith is extremely responsive to ease and cushioned arm-chairs. I have seen her curled up in them like a pretty, tired kitten, glad to exclude the harsh cold of the outside world, or only _to remember it for the luxury of enhancing , a Sybarite; she appreciates clear-burning fires' and the boquet of exquisite wine; she wears beautiful clothes and, as Paula Tanqneray might have said, sho i loves travelling ‘■‘when it’s expensive/’ An orderly and well-run house, plentiful hot water, luscious colours and a decorous background ... All good things, brother ' . . . And yet—there’s always a wind on the heath. Actually, then, and this is a secret unlike that" other which everybody knows, , Sheila Kayo-Smith is “like her books.’’ Of course "she is. The author’s personal mind and soul are rather more than mere vehicles for inspiration. Forget for a moment the superficial picture of a, slender childish figure in white taffeta, ■ strapped shoes, soft, short hair, on, appealing manner. . . . Spiritually, mentally, she is like her books; the fundamental quality of her is a splendid triumphant sanity. Her philosophy and • conduct of life are unusually normal, sane, generous, and, above all things, honest. ' She is in self-contemplation quite one of (he most honest people I know.—G-. B. Stern in T.P.’s and Cassells’ Weekly.