LEISURELY LITTERATEUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22066, 23 September 1933, Page 4

LEISURELY LITTERATEUR

MR MARSHALL’S REMINISCENCES " Out and About.” By. Archibald Marshall. Illustrated. London; Murray. (16s net.) •Mr Marshall proclaims himself an "unabashed Victorian,” and justifies his description in this autobiographical work, which is aptly, sub-titled “ Random Reminiscences.” The reminiscences in “Out and About” are, indeed, altogether too random to be of absorbing interest. Antipodean readers who know Mr Marshall as a contribution to Punch, and probable as a novelist, might expect a more polished style. Mr Marshall's phraseology is occasionally so inept as to suggest the baneful influence’ upon an ■ impressionable writer of his own “ Simple Stories.” For instance: " Still we did very well in our five rooms, which Northcliffe was very ihuch amused at the only time he paid them a visit, and where he said it was always afternoon.’’ They might hope, too, for a moreorigilial, or at least more suggestive, personal assessment of the number of interesting people Mr Marshall has known. The exception to his habit of mentioning these men only in relation to himself is in the case of Ford Madox Ford, and in' this instance the Antipodean reader may think he might have, been spared Mr Marshall’s painstaking elaboration of his quarrel with Ford, or, to be, precise, with what Ford hag written, and has not written, about Mr Marshall. When the offending document, “ Return to Yesterday,” was published, • Henry James, with whom Ford claimed intimacy, wrote:.“l am vaguely aware that his book is out, but he has at least bad the tact not to send it to me, and as P wouldn’t touch it with a tenfoot pole nothing is simpler than for it hot to exist for me.” It might_ have been better for his-reminiscences if Mr Marshall had adopted a like Olympian indifference, for his by no means impartial strictures on Ford are tiresome, even if justified. The most interesting pages’of ‘ Out And About” concern the author’s _ lengthy, though not intimate, association with Northcliffe. He was put in charge, first with Gosse, later, ns editor, of a-literary supplement to the Daily Mail, given a handsome salary, a palatial suite of offices, and left to do as he pleased. He was able to take a bouse in the country for the shooting, and to spend most, of his time out of town, and to carry on happily at his own novel-writing. Northcliffe soon lost touch with the supplement and its staff, but eventually it was discontinued. Mr Marshall comments: — I had’nt seen Northcliffe since February, and made no, atteriipt to do sb. I had nearly the whole of the year for my writing, and drew a substantial salary from the boundless coffers of the Daily Mail for about half a day’s work a week, and not always that, for the book page was sometimes dropped altogether. Once a week I would go up to London in the morning, make up the . columns that Brethetton had prepared : for me, go to the club for lunch and a • rubber of bridge, and back to the Watch House (his home) in the afternoon. ' That was for my salary, and I was paid ■extra for what I wrote.,. . . A very cushy job, and I had nothing up against Northcliffe for forgetting me.

, Nortiicliffe later gave him special staff ■work, and he had some newsworthy assignments at home and abroad, including the covering of the Messina earthquake, a harrowing, experience even for special correspondents. who arrived after the worst was over. Mr Marshall visited Australia fof the Daily Mail," remaining there for some months and covering the continent thoroughly, in a leisurely style. Me also turned .serial "author for ■.Nortiicliffe. Inc story concerned a kidnapped _ child, and was suggested .by Nortiicliffe himself, save that he wanted the child murdered. It went on for about three months, but Northcliffe took no further interest in it. “Out And About” contains four illustrations, including a reproduction .of a caricature portrait of the author by Orgem