IN THE MICROPHONE MANNER

Southland Times, Issue 23380, 11 December 1937, Page 14

IN THE MICROPHONE MANNER

UNDER BIG BEN. English Reveries, by Howard Marshall. Longmans Green and Co., London. Price ss.

These short pieces are the substance of Mr Marshall’s Empire broadcast talks. They are bright and intimate in tone, and widely varied in the range of subject. There is, indeed, an almost accidental quality in some of them as though Mr Marshall had appeared before the microphone with no set theme, but bringing with him the memory of some chance scene of the streets, or the glow of a summer’s day spent in the open. He moves about England a great deal, reporting cricket and football matches, or journeying on family occasions. His small sons creep into his talks; he confides his plans for shifting house and later tells gleefully of the country cottage which seems to have been designed specially for a writer. Like almost every Englishman he is in love with the countryside, and knows its hidden beauties and historic traces of other days. He likes to pause and remember a line or two of poetry, and knows that a multitude of listeners will remember them with him. These “English reveries” will be welcome to those who have heard Mr Marshall’s voice in the Empire broadcasts. They should be equally welcome to many others who feel the attraction of writings in which an Englishman speaks affectionately of his own country and his own people.