NEW FICTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26437, 16 April 1947, Page 2

NEW FICTION

Trottie True. By Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon. Michael Joseph. 9s 6d. Time to Live. By Jack Lindsay. Andrews Dakers. 9s 6d. Death’s Old Sweet Song. By Jonathan Stagge. Michael Joseph. 9s 6d. Morning Light. By H. M. Tomlinson. Hodder and Stoughton. 9s 6d. The Years Between. By Lyle Stevenson. Australasian Publishing Company. 8s 6d. Tansy. By Donald Macardle. Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd. 8s 6d.

Trottie True is another diverting excursion into the recent past by Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon. Trottie starts out as a back street child entertainer, graduates to the halls in company with Dan Leno and Marie Lloyd, and, as did happen in those days, ended up a duchess. There is real life here as well as fiction, and there is a light-hearted disregard for facts when it is convenient. There is also a disregard for coherence in the presentation of the story—it is told haphazardly as the events of the present inspire Trottie to lively recollection of her own past. But it is an entertainment, and can be accepted gratefully as such. Down Our Street

Usually thought of as an historical novelist. Mr Jack Lindsay, in his latest book, Time to Live, shows that he is a lively chronicler of contemporary life, The people who live in a London street which has known more fashionable days, are his characters, and his purpose is simply to tell how they planned to hold a dance in the street to celebrate V-E Day. They are ordinary people for the most part, although there are one or two eccentrics, and their joys and tragedies are the common stuff of life. Perhaps it is not as exciting fare as Mr Lindsay usually gives us, but it is satisfying, and there is none of the self-conscious-ness which so often creeps into the style of an author who embarks on such a task as this. Murder in the Village

A picnic by an old mill is the almost idyllic scene with which Death’s Old Sweet Song opens, but the rural diversion ends with the brutal murder of two children. This is shocking enough but there are four more murders before the criminal is discovered. This may seem almost too much horror for one book, but Jonathan Stagge is no mere writer of thrillers. He has a sense of character and a wryly humorous style which hold the attention of the most discriminating reader. Dr Westlake and Inspector Cobb, both old friends of Mr Stagge’s admirers, are well up to form

The Days of Sail H. M. Tomlinson has a fairly long list of books to his credit, but an addition to their number is always welcome. In Morning Light he breaks new ground for him and turns back the pages of history for a century to the age when sail was giving way to steam. His hero is a lad who runs away to sea and mingles first w Uh the old school of sailors on coastal boats and then on ari emigrant ship until he fo,lows the trend of the times and turns to follow the new. He is a likeable lad, but the impression that the story leaves is not so much of his doings as the memory of the vivid descriptions of contemporary life—the bustle of London the spirit of a mercantile age and not least the brilliant description of an overcrowded emigrant ship braving the perils of an Atlantic storm on its way to the New World. Australian Colonists

Though the dialogue in this book Is sometimes permitted to weaken the effects for which the author so assiduously strives, the work as a whole nevertheless shows evidence of careful planning and an acute perception of character. It tells the story of an Australian family—in no way particularly distinguished from any other family—over a period of 40 years. Dominated by a father who refuses to admit any limitation of parental authority, the members of the family must suffer dictation at every step. The author embarked on no easy task in attempting to trace the development of so many characters, all dependent

on the unyielding and autocratic father, but the result makes entertaining reading. Bril'iant Portraiture Tansy is a precocious little baggage, thoroughly spoiled, but you will like her just the same, because under her veneer of sophistication she is a very human girl who finds a modern upbringing not always adequate to assist her in coping with the problems that arrive in her somewhat unnatural existence. And there are problems, too. Was the father whom she had never seen a hero or a scoundrel? And how can a girl of 16 deal with the unexpected jealousy of her mother? In this absorbing story the creator of Tansy has clinched the reputation he established in “Thursday's Child.” The portraiture is brilliant and every character is drawn with a sympathy that creates an admirable air of naturalism in even the most dramatic situations.