A JOURNALIST REMEMBERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23108, 6 February 1937, Page 4

A JOURNALIST REMEMBERS

SIR MAX PEMBERTON'S LIFE STORY " Sixty Years Ago and After." By Max Pemberton. Illustrated. London: Hutchinson. £1 7s 6d.

As a novelist Sir Max Pemberton is almost forgotten to-day, although he has published more than 30 novels. It is eight years since his last novel appeared. An older generation, however, remembers him with affection, particularly as the creator of Captain Black, the notorious " Iron Pirate." Though entitled " Sixty Years ago and After," the period covered by Sir Max in his book of memoirs is little more than 30 years, but those 30 years include the 80's, 90's and early 1900's, a period that witnessed many astounding

changes not only in modes of living, but in the general outlook upon life. This age saw the beginning of the golf craze in England, the introduction of cycling, motoring and pleasurecruising, and saw also the foundation of a more outspoken literature. It seems hard to believe that so short a time ago an editor actually fainted when presented with a story in which aa. eloping couple were arrested and locked up in a cell together! Sir Max was a pioneer in cycling and motoring, and his account of his experiences in these fields is as amusing as it is entertaining. As he rode, horses shied; later horses were to shy more violently at motor cars. But in the early motoring days old ladies clambered out of carriages and hid in bushes when a car ame in sight. Motor cars were introduced into England against bitter opposition, and parliamentary measures were urged restricting speed to five miles per hour. These original cars were costly machines in run. One wealthy man paid out £I2OO in one year for tyres and tubes alone, while the author's expenses for 12 months amounted to £500! Sir Max was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, then Cambridge, where he was " captain of boats" at Caius College. Unknown, he reached London, and steadily made a name for himself as a journalist. He was the original editor of Chums and later of Cassell's Magazine. He knew not only the great of the day in the world of letters, but also of the theatre and of the sporting world. The volume abounds in racy anecdotes concerning Henry Labouchere, Henry Irving, Jasper Maskelyne, Dan Leno, Carlo Pellegrini, one of the greatest of cartoonists, Maerten-Maertens, Phil May, Wemyss Reid, George Meredith, Sii James Barrie, Augustine Birrell, Rider Haggard, Gertrude Athert,on, W. G. Grace, Herbert Ward, the explorer, and countless greater and lesser lights. On the invitation of the Austrian Government Sir Max and Clement Shorter made a lengthy visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, an invitation which was later found to possess a political significance. Sir Max did other touring, and such space as he devotes to this he heads "Some Mild Voyaging." The term might well be applied generally to his own achievements, for Sir Max keeps himself well in the background. That may be a matter for regret, but the volume itself can raiso no such thoughts for it is an entertaining composite picture of an exceptionally interesting period, and is compiled by a man who is fully aware of what the reading public desires. C. H. tr.