ODDS AND ENDS

Southland Times, Issue 23664, 12 November 1938, Page 14

ODDS AND ENDS

J. A. Spender thinks English writing has for the time being lost its spontaneity and got out of touch with the common mind. So many, even of the best writers, seem to be thinking of what the clever young men will say if they seem to be unacquainted with the latest foreign models.

A report from Los Angeles asserts that the city owns a book thief who is so fond of Omar Khayyam that he has twice been sentenced to prison for stealing a copy of “Rubiayat.”

According to A. G. Macdonell, the impression one gets from reading the reminiscences of high-pressure American journalists is that they know pretty nearly everything, but when it comes to the meaning of what they know, they are not quite so good. Also they are inclined to be a little out of date. But of one thing it is possible to be certain, that they are desperately sincere.

At a recent literary luncheon Margery Allingham mentioned that she was one of the few detective writers who had actually seen a murder, but she forgot it very quickly. “Murder as an act,” she said, “does not interest me, but murder as a result does.”

Literary competitions often provide useful indications of the trend of popular taste, and' some significance may be attached to the results of a recent prize offer by The Observer, London. Readers were invited to name the six characters from novels of the present century whom they thought most likely ’to be remembered fifty years hence. The six that obtained most votes were Soames Forsyte, Jeeves, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Jesse Oakroyd, Father Brown and Peter Pan. The list, arranged in order of the number of votes cast, continued as follows: Sherlock Holmes, Babbitt, Judith Paris, Kipps, Scarlet O’Hara, Bulldog Drummond, Mr Polly, Kim, Lord Peter Wimsey, Constance, Rogue Herries, Tessa, Lord Jim, Hercule Poirot and Mr Chips.