THE LATEST NOVELS

Southland Times, Issue 23995, 9 December 1939, Page 12

THE LATEST NOVELS

The Family of Morgan

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY. By Richard Llewellyn. Michael Joseph, London. Price 8/6 net. English critics frequently complain that the novel has fallen on evil days. They sigh for the appearance of books with the full-bodied quality of Victorian fiction, and ask why it is that so few writers now seem able to tell a story about real people, and with the substance of life in it. These complaints are not without cause, for much slender work is produced in the name of fiction. But once in two or three years a really good novel comes from England, as if to confound the critics and to prove again that the old vitality has hot yet departed. Such a book is “How Green Was My Valley.” I Huw Morgan, who tells the story, is involved in occasional adventures that are like the day-dreams in which imaginative boys win all their battles and perform deeds of a splendid heroism. While still a little lad he saves his mother from death after she has gone up the mountain to give straight words to a meeting of strikers and falls lost in the snow on the way down through a rising storm. At school he overcomes enemies with his fists and even thrashes a bullying master, a deed that most boys pondered among their thoughts when the school room was less pleasant than today. He is constantly involved in episodes that demand strength and courage; and when he hits out, straight and hard, or speaks fiery words, the reader will be with him in spirit, knowing that he has dreamed these situations many times in his own life. The story deals with the mouse of Morgan and shows the family in its warm home on the edge of a Welsh valley, beginning with the days. men could earn good money in the coal mines, and moving on through the troubled years when labour problems cause strikes and unrest, when the slag heaps spread further into the green fields, and one by one the brothers and sisters of Huw met their difficulties, or go off to find new ones m the outside world. It tells of Huws father, a man to be respected and loved as he faces trouble with calm gaze and brings to his family crises a. wisdom of the soil, touched with a light that clings about the history of an imaginative people: His wife Beth is a mother of sons, simple but direct in. outlook; and in that small house there is always the smell of rich cooking (the descriptions of food bring water to the mouth in a way reminiscent of Dickens) and the sound of voices and the warmth of clean lives. There is also Bronwen, the wife of Ivor Morgan, a woman loved by Huw until the end, and worthy of his love. Certain events stand out more clearly than others; a night of stem justice meted to a wretch who assaults a girl, a prize fight that ends with the blinding ■of the victor, and the flooding of the mine when Huw’s father loses his life. But .other, and quieter, things will be remembered: the singing of the choirs and the eagerness for song in all the men and women of this Welsh valley, the walks and encounters on the mountain, and the ‘ fireside glimpses of a • simple home life. This may not be a great novel; but it has been written by one who may have greatness in him. And in the meantime it is probably the best novel that has come out of England this year.

New Detective Stories

MOTIVE FOR MURDER. By Basil Manningham. Robert Hale, London, through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 7/6. THE MINE OF ILL OMEN. By Hugh Lea. Hodder and Stoughton, London, through W. S. Smart, Sydney. Price 7/6. These two readable detective stories are poles apart in style and plot. Mr Manningham writes about his grim subject quite frivolously. An odious young diarist sets out to destroy his uncle and two cousins, none of whom knows that

he exists, in order to inherit a fortune. His plans and aspirations are minutely described in the diary, and they are such a revelation of his character that readers’ sympathies will be entirely with his victims. Cunningly he collects arsenic and begins to experiment with it. The death of two dogs brings into the story another diarist, Miss Tickle, member of a society for giving veterinary assistance to those who cannot afford to pay for it. : She suspects that the dogs have been murdered, has her suspicions confirmed, and sets, out to discover their murderer. The story ends with a brilliant version of the three-card trick with three cups of tea (one containing arsenic) over which’ the murderer and his pursuer match' their wits. It is an ingenious and . original tale.

Mr Lea follows the more usual path of murder, mystery and detection. The background of “The Mine of 11l Omen” is the Cornish coast in the neighbourhood of abandoned tin mines. Here a detective on holiday discovers the body of a murdered man.' The plot is good and well worked out; but readers may feel at the end of it that Mr Lea has not altogether played fair with them.