PERSONS AND PLACES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27391, 17 May 1950, Page 2

PERSONS AND PLACES

Pleasant Autobiography

Winter Is in July. By Elma Napier. Jonathan Cape. 10s 6d. Mrs Napier has already demonstrated her qualities in the first volumes of her autobiography, ” Youth is a Blunder.” She is extremely candid. She has met interesting people and visited interesting people, and she is herself a stimulating companion. This sequel is, once again, pleasant reading. Among the attractions of her narrative are her descriptions of the leisured life of the wealthy classes before the Great War. It may be recalled that her father was Sir William GordonCumming, whQ figured in the celebrated “ Baccarat Case." After her marriage in 1912 she went to live in Australia for nine years, and she claims. “ I never found an Englishwoman who loved Australia as I did.” There are interludes in Japan, the South Seas, France, and, of course. England and Scotland. Later with her second husband, she lived in the United States.

One quotation suffices as an example of her manner: “After my marriage I had let myself be influenced entirely by Maurice, which is obviously the easiest way to live with a husband, but in the end reason rebels.”