NEW NOVELS

Southland Times, Issue 24533, 6 September 1941, Page 9

NEW NOVELS

Charming Mrs Tim MRS TIM. By D. E. Stevenson, Collins and Co., London, through Whitcombe and Tombs. Price 8/9. D. E. Stevenson has made herself a reputation as a dependable writer of romantic fiction. Her novels are not in the highest class; but they are good, readable stories about people who talk and behave like anybody’s neighbours, though always with a hint of the romance which opens a way of escape from humdrum experience. Above all, they are essentially good humoured, at times moving frankly into comedy. “Mrs Tim” is not a new character; she was first introduced some years ago, and the present volume contains two long stories, previously published in separate volumes, which have now been knitted into a single narrative —and knitted so deftly that only experienced readers will detect the join. The heroine is the wife of an Army officer who keeps a diary, recording in it her domestic problems, her personal impressions of places and people—especially of people. Captain Tim Christie is transferred to a town _in Scotland, and his wife goes with him. She makes friends, saves a nice young man from an unsuitable marriage, succeeds in keeping the friendship of another man who obviously loves her, and snatches an idyllic holiday in the highlands. The catalogue of events may not sound exciting; but Miss Sievenson knows how to make them seem important, and her characters grow upon the reader. It is pleasant to discover that she is working on a sequel which will be published shortly. Victorian Heiress THIS CHEQUERED FLOOR. By Francis Bamford. Longmans, Green and Co., London. Price 8/6. Faith Avenol succeeds her grandfather as the owner of broad estates. Her childhood is shadowed by the loss of her parents, by neglect _ and loneliness. She marries early, is deserted by her husband, and later is disappointed in her son, who grows up to marry the daughter of the village grocer. A second marriage gives her a brief happiness, and in her last days she is reconciled to her son. But tragedy is never far distant from these pages. The Victorian backgrounds are not very convincing, and most of the characters are unreal. Nevertheless Francis Bamford knows how to tell a story. A wider experience of life and character might enable him to produce a more satisfying novel. Stories of Latin America ANGELIC ROMANCE. By Helen Douglas Irvine. Longmans, Green and Co., London. Price 7/6 net. Helen Douglas Irvine specializes in South American backgrounds. In the three longish stories printed .in this volume she turns again to the exotic settings and social archaicisms of the Latin republics. Her ’plots are conventional, even artificial; but the tales are redeemed from banality by the sense of drama which can be felt beneath the deceptive quietness of her Spanish-American households. She also has a gift for portraiture which would be impressive in a more imaginative fiction. Little Miss Nixon, the English governess who watches her graceless young pupil deceive her own best friend into a disastrous marriage, and Teresa the slave girl who has to decide between the love of a middle-aged cavalier and his son, stand out with a noticeable vitality from the puppets that surround them.