GREY DAWN—RED NIGHT

Stratford Evening Post, Volume I, Issue 82, 16 March 1931, Page 4

GREY DAWN—RED NIGHT

A STORY OF PEACE AND WAR LITERARY MASTERPIECE James L. Hodsou has written something rather approaching a masterpiece in his “Grey Dawn—Red Night.” It has been compared with “All Quiet ...” and is similar in many respects, but “All Quiet ...” has not anything of the brilliancy of this volume. Hodsou is a wonderful descriptive writer, his language is ah* tractive and when be has to be gross (which Is not often) he brings such passages in merely as a kind of background because in order to present his picture effectively he must do it. “All Quiet ...” reminded one of a naughty little boy who, learning some dirty talk felt it incumbent upon him to impart his acquired knowledge to others. “Grey Dawn” is different: it is really nasty very sel- ) dom, but when it is that nastiness cannot be avoided and is delicately introduced. It is never filthy. The story of John Ilardcastle’s boyhood is told interestingly. His father was a Lancashire mill worker who frequently got drunk and indulged in some irritating habits. His mother was one of those hard-work-ing women who, though lacking ia education, had her own philosophy and imagination, which undoubtedly the boy inherited. He became a journalist and proved a very good one. In the chapters relating to Hardcastle’s journalistic career the author shows his practical knowledge of newspaper men and fhatters and his character drawing is skilful. Then comes the war. Hardcastle' Is sent to Grimsby, where much id doing in connection with naval activities, and his efforts to obtain in* formation throw interesting .side* lights upon the outlook of naval and military men, these being very different. The naval men are much less self-important than the miliary ones. It is at Grimsby that Hardcastlfli meets Stella. There is no sentimental tosh in these passages. The, attraction each for the other is , set forth remarkably well, and where many an author would descend,-to bathos Hodson remains sensible. Qf course Hardcastle joins up—he doesn’t quite know why—but it seems the most natural thing to do: and.

it is after his enlistment, before being drafted to the proper unit, that Hodson’s description of life in a kind of concentration camp taxes our credulity. Surely even Jiuch a big emergency as the war did not find the British Army so lacking. in organisation, that men were herded .together like swine and given food hardly fit for pigs: at other timesbeing starved, cold, flea-bitten and filthy. Englishmen under certain circumstances can be as dirty in their habits as any one else, but the • 'description of the utter lack of decency in a camp in the West 6t England does seem far-fetched. ■ . ; Then the transfer to Aldershot and later active service. Here the book is magnificent and compared with it fAll Quiet ...” is something like’ a penny “shocker.” As a .logical study it is in a class by ifc> self; but because it is a psychological study it is not by any means an*, interesting to the average reader.-It is written in such a way that it cannot be put down until the last page has ben perused. Mrs. J. S. McDonald, of/the Library Committee, states it is to bei placed in the library, and subscribers are in for a treat. “Grey Dawn-Red Night,” by .Tamed Lonsdale Hodson. Victor Gollancz, Ltd., London. ' :!•