ROMANCE ON THE HIGHWAY

Southland Times, Issue 23408, 15 January 1938, Page 12

ROMANCE ON THE HIGHWAY

THE CROOKED FURROW. By Jeffery Farnol. Sampson Low, Marston and Company, London, through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 7s 6d When Oliver and Roland, first cousins and avowed enemies, are summoned into the presence of their uncle, Sir Everard Matravers, and informed that they must go out into the world with 52 guineas apiece and prove, in a year’s struggle for existence, which of the two deserves the family inheritance, the reader of Mr Farnol’s novel finds himself in a familiar background. By the time the cousins have lost their money to a highwayman, saved a lady of quality from footpads, fought with gipsies over a small girl, shared breakfast under a hedge with a tinker and fallen in with Mr Jasper Shrig of Bow Street, there can be no doubt that this new book is in the tradition of “The Broad Highway.” If there is something lacking it is a certain vigour that made the earlier books attractive to new readers. But there is no lack of action. Fists fly in the defence of fair women, and it is surprising the number of adventures that can be crammed into a single night when Mr Farnol is on the highways of England. There is a curiously old-fashioned story about Sir Everard and his mysterious son, and of the lovely Deborah and her uncertain love. But the story is merely a thread which holds togethre the night encounters, the battles with bare fists and the flourishes of quaint dialogue. Mr Farnol’s world seems somewhat rich in colour and sentiment as the years go by; and it is growing harder to believe in his lusty heroes and highspirited ladies. But he can still tell a story that is bound to please many readers.