ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1935, Page 9 (Supplement)

ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

MODERN JOURNALIST’S MEMOIRS. INDIAN SOLDIERS AT GALLIPOLI. The chief librarian of the New Plymouth Public Library reports the following books in popular demand:— General Literature. “Gerald: A Portrait,” Daphne Du Maurier. “The White Monk of Timbuctoo,” William Seabrook. “Desert and Forest: Exploration in Abyssinia,” L. M. Nesbitt. “An Alpine Journey,” F. S. Smythe. “The Price of Pleasure,” Charles Graves. “Famous Plays of 1934-1935,” collected. Fiction. “Pendulum Swing,” Mary Mitchell. “Ambition’s Harvest,” Nellie M. Scanlan. “A House Divided,” Pearl S. Buck. “O, These Men, These Men,” Angela Thirkell. “Come and Get It,” Edna Ferber. “Cactus,” Ethel Mannin. The following books have been added to the library recently:— “God’s In His Heaven,” by J. L. Hodson. (Gollancz.)

Those who remember Mr. Hodson’s “Harvest in the North” will appreciate to the full this later work which tells of the later years of Lancashire folk whose “Harvest” was an industrial debacle from which recovery is only just beginning. Sam and Harriet Renshaw and their children, the Houghtons, Henry and Trix Brierley and other inhabitants of the Chesterford Mr. Hodson describes With insight and sympathy are all engaged in rearranging their lives in accommodation with 1 the collapse of the Lancashire cotton industry. ’ For Edward and Mary Houghton there was no lack of material comfort to soften the recollection that "Houghton’s Mill” once considered in Chesterford as impregnable as the Bank of England, had been overthrown. ‘' Yet -the bitterness killed Edward, and stirred in Mary a desire to' return to the harsher northern conditions and people. ■■- • For the Renshaws’ poverty was thetall pervading condition and-it rankled with Harriet all the time. She did not regret the fall from their hectic prosperity in the days of the boom. Her Sorrow 1 was that- neither she- nor Sam could return to their old work as weaver and spinner and thus earn a wage that .would keep their family in comfort and • their own self-respect. l Their son George had returned from ;wanderings. to find an industrial world ithat had no use for him or for thou-sands-of other young.men.. They were "on the dole” and the bitterness of that experience, the blighting effect it had upon young and old,. is described with rich understanding of the attitude of the wage-earner who asked only for the opportunity to earn a decent living for himself and his family.

The results of that experience upon a generation Gf workless adolescents have yet to be proven in England. ,Mr. Hodson’s book is likely to provoke much thought, and, it is to be hoped, sympathy for those who l could find nothing useful to occupy their idle hours. Bureaucracy was harsh, with the harshness born of fear of the problem with which it was trying to grapple. The unemployed were not all saints, and some control of public funds was necessary. Harriet Renshaw’s own honesty compelled her to admit this, but it did not lessen her indignation that in wealthy England it should have been possible for an important industry to drift to complete disaster.

Henry Brierley was more mercurial than the Renshaws. His romance with Trix was wearing threadbare and his failure as a mill-owner quickened the process. ' Henry’s infatuation for his wife suffered final eclipse when he found her living as the mistress of an actor, and the blow is the less severe because of his renewed acquaintance with Mary Houghton. • ' . ’

There is not much sunshine in this book. God s' in His Heaven, but it is a heaven a long .way off, and suffering humanity is full of concern for material troubles. Mr. Hodson had written of Lancashire in the whirl ■of the boom and the commencement of the lean days. This book sounds the depths of the debacle. Will it be the author’s privilege to complete the trilogy with the story of Lancashire’s recovery? Hope-that this will be possible is likely to be engendered in ‘all who read this powerful, fascinating i story of straggles with adversity. “With the Dictators of Fleet Street,” by Russell Stannard. (Hutchinson.) , A provincial reporter who joined the staff of the London Daily. Mail in 1912, which then boasted, with justification, the largest circulation of any daily paper in the world, and was under the personal direction of “the most extraordinary .genjys who had ever entered journalism —Lord Northcliffe’’—was likely to accumulate'many experiences.' Mr. Stannard rose from the status of a temporary reporter on the staff of the Daily Mail to that of news editor of the Sunday Express and in the process made more or less close contact with .many important people in Press and other circles. He had, for instance, “personal contacts with my Lords Northcliffe, Beaverbook and Riddell,” of whom only Lord Beaverbrook is still alive. He thinks Lord Northcliffe possessed the most remarkable personality that ever* came into journalism, but he doubts whether in the altered conditions in Fleet Street to-day even another Northcliffe could achieve the astounding record created by Alfred Harmsworth afterwards Viscount North-' cliffe. Mr. Stannard gives some interesting descriptions of journalistic “scoops” and failures, of the various personalities that gave the daily Press its powerful influence on the public mind and upon the course of events. He tells of the reluctance of many able journalists to join illustrations to news in a daily paper, and how conception has altered of the “news value” of events or sayings formerly unquestioned as being of firstclass importance. There is no sighing for the “good old days” about Mr. Stannard: He admits the life of the successful London journaist must be strenuous and single-minded. He points out, however, that the prizes are as great as ever, and that they can be obtained by merit although influence may create the opportunity to display the merit a man possesses. Mr. Stannard’s descriptions of the various people he has met and sometimes worked with are the most interesting portion of his book. They are crisp, charitable without sentimentality, and confine themselves to the essentials. As an autobiography of a successful man, or as the history of London journalism during the past 20 years, this is a most satisfying volume. “Himalayan Wanderer.” by BrigadierGeneral C. & Bruce. (Maclehose & Co.) General Bruce has written a very en-

tertaining book about his experiences as a subaltern in England, and his later and more serious work as an officer in the Indian Army. Incidentally he 'tells of the development of his love of mountaineering and the fascination there is for mountaineers in the vast Himalayan ranges of which he writes with first hand knowledge and keen appreciation. While “Himalayan Wanderer” is a refreshing autobiography it-- is worthy of study if only for the tribute it pays to the native Indian troops at Gallipoli and in Palestine. When the glories of Anzac Day and after are recalled, there is rarely any reference to the Indian troops. Yet they were attached to that heroic 29th Division, the Corps that effected the famous’ landings at Seddul Bahr and Helles, although they did not land upon Gallipoli until four days after those heroic performances. General Bruce confines his narrative to the experiences of the Indian troops under his own command, but he tells enough to show that in spite of Turkey being the head and the hub of Mohammedanism, and the fact that religion is inextricably mixed up in the Oriental mind with all phases of life, the Gurkhas and Sikhs never allowed their feelings for the Turks as coreligionists to interfere with their duty to their own land and to their own Government. This book is a straightforward and breezy account of a life that has been thoroughly enjoyed, and has contained many experiences quite out of the ordinary even for young and well-connect-ed British army officers. It can be recommended as cheery entertainment and a little more. NEW BOOK RELEASED. TARANAKI AUTHOR. John Guthrie is the latest recruit to the growing roll of New Zealand novelI ists. His first book, “The Little Coun--1 try,” is announced by Nelson’s for early publication. The story has its setting in the Dominion of to-day, and it notably fulfils the ambition of one of the characters “to make a book in which we, as a country, should know ourselves and be known as we really are.” Taranaki has a special interest in this book in that the author, whose real name is not John Guthrie, is a resident of New Plymouth. The novel has the imprimatur of Mr. L. A. G. Strong.