BY ELEANOR FARJEON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23691, 24 December 1938, Page 4

BY ELEANOR FARJEON

FAIRY TALES FOR A MODERN •■ One Foot in Fairyland." By Eleanor Farjeon. London: Joseph. 9s. Miss Farjeon is a writer to be thankful for in a world in which all our comings and goings are ordered by an unimaginative word—realism. It is not merely because she tells fairy stories that Eleanor Farjeon stands almost unique among contemporary writers for children. Plenty of people can spin a gossamer fairy tale very prettily, and as many more are most accomplished in adapting the fairy theme to the present conditions and understanding of the young. But Miss Farjeon's art is subtler than that of most of these writers. Her stories relate the old traditions of the tellers of fairy and folk tales to the world of to-day. Whether there is such a creature as a " modern child"—forbidding term—may be doubted by those who have seen the sophisticated juvenile product of this age poring over Andersen and Grimm. But it is quite definitely certain that there is such a quality, as modern perception, and it is this almost indefinable need which Miss Farjeon answers in her tales for the young and old people who see no reason for disbelieving in fairies, and equally no reason for becoming mawkish about them. There is, in the first of the 15 stories in this book, a moral about seeing and understanding things outside the realm of immediate experience, which may be taken to heart by its less youthful readers. It will prepare them for the stimulating contact with the author's mind which they, even better than children will make in the pages that follow. And what is more impprtant. it will help them to realise that in her very sure intuition of what children like. Miss Farjeon never allows her fantasies to become escapist. They have wisdom as well as wit for a modern world to ponder. The title of the volume is no accident, but a precis of its contents. A. L. F, AN IMPERIAL THESAURUS The British Literary Annual. Edited by Edith M. Fry. London: British Authors' Press, lis. The avowed object of this publication is to weave a connecting thread that shall in some measure unite the diversified " geists " of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The annual, which is chastely bound and liberally illustrated, is at one and the same time a gift book and a thesis. In her foreword the editor allows x ~that having aimed high, she may have appeared to have missed the mark in some instances. To make such an anthology representative in the eyes of everyone were an impossible task. The annual opens with a sympathetic biographical sketch of John Drinkwater by the former secretary of the dead poet It is eulogistic almost to a fault, but one should recall the adage that no man is a hero to his valet. Few authors are heroes, one imagines, to their secretaries. John Drinkwater supplies one happy exception. There is an interesting account of the work of Dr Douglas Hyde, the first-elected President of Eire. Ernest Rhys contributes some characteristic " Child Lyrics." He j is not .the only Welshman to be represented. Win. Griffith deals with Welsh literature, and Miss Fry herself with the Australian novel. It appears that the religious denominations controlled the Welsh press in the nineteenth century, so that freedom of expression was at a discount. There was no War literature in Welsh, nor is there a waste land. In Wales today the Welsh language is fighting for its life against the Anglicisinp process of press, kinema and radio. The anthology is enriched by a poem from W. H. Davies entitled " Common Joys." Canada is represented by an article on the Work of Grey Owl, by Wiyot. There is an appreciation of Madeleine Holland and Edith L. M. King, two South African poets, by "Southern Cross." M. M. contributes an article on Kipling and E. M. Forster as interpreters of India. Mrs Garland Foster provides a consideration of the sonnet in Canadian literature. Village drama is treated of by Mary Kelly and Miss Nancy Price, who has of late years rivalled Miss Gladys Cooper in the realms of actress-management, contributes an article on the People's National Theatre. Thomas Moult, who reviews books for the Manchester Guardian, writes on books of 1938 and other features are book reviews and theatre criticisms. There are poems interspersed by Lady Margaret Sackville, C. R. Allen. A. W Housman and Thomas Moult. "PARLOUR MAGIC" " Your Previous Life on Earth." By Gervee Baronte. London: Jenkins, 5s 6d This might be described as a book of parlour magic. It is the proud possessor of a sub-title "Reincarnation Simplified." It starts with a chapter on reincarnation, in which the author attempts with a stout heart to " prove " this doctrine true. She brings forward the well-known cases of the Indian children who remember their previous lives and identify places, husbands houses, and personal possessions. She brings forward the argument that the soul, if it has a future. must also have had a past. Her arguments are facile but shallow. She will convince no one who is not already at least half a believer However, she will not mind that. Her work is designed to appeal to the person with a fondness for dream books and the reading of the cards. The bulk of " Your Previous Life on Earth" is taken up with what are called weekly reconstructions telling the reader, according to the week in which he was born, just when he was last incarnated and what sort of person he is. The character indications, vague as they are prove extremely inaccurate when put to the acid test. The stories of previous incarnations are remarkable for the power of the author's imagination, but do no credit to her logic. Apparently the periods between incarnations vary enormously, and may be anything between a few hundred and a few thousand years. This does not square with the true philosophy on the subject, nor does it agree with the author's own tales of the Indian children. This is not a book for anyone really interested in the subject. It may be amusing as recreational reading, but that is about as far as it goes. Our copy is from Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs. P. H. W. N Victorian Art Recollections ol the artistic world of London in the later years of Queen Victoria's reign are contained in an autobiography, "So Kind to Youth," which Michael Joseph are publishing Chance brought the author (who calls herself Evelyn Bell) into intimate and affectionate contact with a group of distinguished men A violinist of rare promise, she became a protege of August Wilhelmj and Max Hecht Sh<> knew Cecil Sharp, Edward German, and other celebrated musicians. She was a model for that tremendously popular, but now completely neglected artist, Marcus Stone, and chapters of this book are said to recapture vividly the atmosphere of hi? then famous studio Explorer's Story

"Beyond .lonzons," by Lincoln Ellsworth, is described by Heinemann'? ns "the autobiography of the greatest modern explorer, pioneer of exploration by aeroplane, conqueror of both Poles. This is the fascinating story of a frail boy. born and reared in luxury, who chose for himself a life of rigorous adventure and hardship in the uncharted wastes of the world. Explorer in both the Arctic and Antarctic, conqueror of both Poles. Lincoln Ellsworth's life embraces the maximum of excitement and adventure"