THE BOOKMAN

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 689, 14 June 1929, Page 14

THE BOOKMAN

“VIVANDIERE”

YOUNG WRITER’S NOVEL ON RETREAT FROM MOSCOW

rWritten for THE SUN by JANE MANDEK) /~\UR very latest prodigy who Is havJng a most comfortable success with her first novel, “Vivandiere,” is Miss Phoebe Gaye. She, with the Australian author, Henry Handel Richardson, is one of the big successes of this winter book season. It is not often that a first novel attracts the instant attention of critics as "Vivandiere” has done, but the youth of the writer and the novelty of her subject have both added to the advertisement. In choosing to write about the retreat from Moscow, Miss Gaye has gone away from the beaten track. It has not been done before. Tolstoy’s "War and Peace” has been quoted as enough to put any English writer off trying the period, though why, I cannot see. Conrad, if I remember rightly, wrote a short story touching the Retreat. It comes, also, into Ouida’s "Under Two Flags.” But otherwise, Miss Gaye has it to herself The vivandifire of the book is Julie, seller of wines and food to the army, and certainly one of the sweetest heroines that has gone into a modern story. Miss Gaye has been bright enough to have made a costume of the vivandiSres of the period, and to have herself photographed in it for publicity. I was the first writer to see this new author, whose success has come so suddenly that she does not realise it yet. Miss Gaye is an extremely pretty and accomplished girl in her early twenties. She claims descent from John Gay, author of "The Beggar's Opera.” Otherwise, she has no literary relatives. She is a Londoner and lives in Chelsea, but knows nothing of the wild life of the artist section. She knows no writers and belongs to no art clubs. She has known a good deal of poverty, lives in a ser vaaitless home, and for years has worked strenuously to earn her living. Her father is dead and she is one of the breadwinners in a family of five. She tells me that versatility has been one of her difficulties, as it often is with writers. At first she cared most for dancing, acting and painting, at all of which she is now proficient. She was privately educated as a small child, and then went to the Margaret Morris School in Chelsea. The first thing she tried to write was a play, and this at the age of fourteen. Then at sixteen she was teaching history—another discovered passion—in a private school. She did this for two years, at the same time writing plays, painting and dancing. Three of the plays written at this time have since been read from provincial stations of the 8.8. C. For two or three years

now Miss Gaye has been part-time secretary -to a South African woman writer, Mrs. Daphne Muir (whose first novel, “A Virtuous Woman,” a story of a Boer family, was published by Chatto and Windus at the end of March). She has also been teaching painting to a class in Putney, and play-acting in a settlement in Walthamstow. Besides this she does housework and makes her own clothes. And yet she has been resolute enough to set apart time for writing. A little over a year ago Miss Gaye’s attention was taken by the notice of an historical novel competition published by Chatto and Windus. With her love of history she decided to try for it, and in looking for some period not overworked she lit on the Retreat from Moscow. She poked about in libraries and old book stores for volumes likely to help her, found old diaries, copies of the original letters of French soldiers, various forgotten memoirs and reminiscences; and with her own imagination and enthusiasm set about her very lively and amazingly realistic book. She wrote it in seven months, and when it was finished felt she could not wait for the competition which is still open, but on the advice of a friend sent it in to Martin Seeker who accepted it last summer, with only a week’s suspense for the young author. Things like this do happen sometimes. Waking to find herself famous overnight, Miss Gaye is not unduly excited. She is still carrying on her various jobs, as royalties are only paid twice in the year. But a large cheque will certainly revolutionise the life of this young author. Her book has been accepted for America by Horace Livernight. There is already talk of filming it. Commissions are coming in from magazines. Miss Gaye has no idea for another novel at present, and says she will not allow herself to be hurried into one. She has no idea of writing modern novels. But she does think of plays.

1 WXJ r ßevlewsS Sc Notesgi

Phoebe Gaye and the two writers I mentioned in my previous article — Georgette Heyer and Carola Oman — have several things in common. They are beautiful and young. They are all conservative in the sense that they do not haunt night clubs, get photographed with gigolos, attend wild studio parties, or try to scintillate at cocktail hours. They detest these things. Neither Phoebe Gaye nor Georgette Heyer smokes. All find more beauty in past ages than in the present. Of the three, Carola Oman is the most serious and accomplished writer, and I shall be very much surprised if her two forthcoming books do not bring her to the front rank of historical novelists. JANE MANDER.