ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

Taranaki Daily News, 17 August 1935, Page 21 (Supplement)

ADDITIONS TO LIBRARY

LAYING RAILS IN MANY LANDS. TWO GOOD ENGLISH RURAL YARNS. The chief librarian of the New Plymouth Public Library reports the following books in popular demand:— General Literature. “Puppets Into Scotland,” Walter Wilkinson. “Passenger Ticket,” Derek Drabble. “Travels and Men,” J. H. Curie. “The Riddle of Jutland,” Langhorne Gibson and Vice-Admiral J. E. T. Harper. “Rolling Down The Lachlan,” Frank Clune. “With My Own Eyes,” Frederick Palmer. Fiction. “Stars Look Down,” A. J. Cronin. “The Shipbuilders,” George Blake. “God’s in His Heaven,” J. L. Hodson. “Egypt’s Lane,” Don Portbury. “The Seven Arms,” L. A. G. Strong. “Polycaip’s Progress,” Victor Canning. “Through Jungle, Bush And Forest,” by D. G. Heslop. (Andrew Melrose, Ltd., London). A railway construction engineer who has followed his profession during the last 30 years in England, Assam, India, Central America, China, Australia, and West and East Africa was likely to have accumulated some interesting experiences. When to the travels mentioned can be added the struggles to keep railways up to the of the front line of warfare in France and in Palestine the record is still more enriched. Mr. Heslop has known a good many ups and downs in the course of his career, but he has known good fortune as well. He has learned what it means to bump against authority, and on reading his reminiscences the conviction is reached that he was a better man for single-handed than for team work. Handling “lesser breeds” of men Mr. Heslop could show initiative and courage in professional as well as in personal matters; When he was subject to supervision by Colonial authorities, whether in Africa or Australia he seems to have •been uncomfortable, tactless and just a thought too “superior” for successful team work. Nevertheless he has written a very interesting book. A railway construction engineer follows a profession of ■which the average citizen knows very little. When construction takes him into “jungle, bush and forest” the engineer is still further from the limelight, and as this book shows, has often to juggle with disaster or death as part of the everyday job. Nor does he always win!

“Turkestan Solo,” by Ella K. Maillart. (Putnam, London).

When a woman, and a foreigner at that, desired to visit Turkestan, that little known Russian “sphere of influence” lying south-east of the Caspian Sea and stretching across to the borders of China, she found there were many obstacles to overcome. The author tells philosophically of the difficulties raised by Soviet officials at Moscow, and how by good luck they were avoided or overcome. .

Western and Central Asia contain such enormous areas that it is difficult to visualise the journey Miss Maillart undertook, and still more difficult to understand why there should be any hesitancy on the part of the authorities to permit travelling there. It is true they were provinces who were being introduced, with much reluctance on their part, to t' e joys of collective agriculture and other aspects of New Russia, but of all this the author of “Turkestan Solo” has little to say. She quotes a few conversations, but so dispassionately as to leave the reader unaware whether she is in favour of Soviet rule or not.

Her journey was full of discomforts and disappointments.- It began with a railway journey from Moscow in which she spent “the first 36 hours asleep, lying on my sleeping bag in an upper bunk which I have chosen in the hope that the bugs will circulate less freely than on the lower storey. When we get to a station, however ... I rush out on the platform, to size up whatever eatables the natives may be proffering.” There is no travelling de luxe on the Soviet railways if this is a sample of travel on the great trans-Siberian railway.

Miss Maillart found most experiences interesting and some of them amusing. By sheer determination she accomplished journeys that a less dauntless soul would have abandoned. She saw the people in their homes; their schools, and at play. She saw a row of men condemned to death for rebellion, and saw the beginning of belief that there might be something for collective agriculture. But this book is a study of peoples and places, not of political systems or their application—save as they affect the individual. On the whole she leaves the impression that Soviet rule has made little difference to the common people. They are still engaged in struggles With hostile climates and conditions in order to obtain food and shelter, and with these provided are content to leave government to those disposed to seize it. The references to earlier civilisations form some of the most interesting portions of this book, which can be recommended. to all who love stories of travel in countries of which little is known. “Four Winds,” by Roland Pertwee. (Ivor Nicholson and Watson, London). Mr. Pertwee has chosen the borders of Exmoor for the location of a firstclass thriller story. It is a district in which the influence of the squire and his family is still one to reckon with, and where queer stories are told in village inns of the eccentricities and amusements of the members of the old families who reside in such homes as the “Four Winds" of this book. The Villandy family were unlovely people,. and when the estate of which “Four Winds” was the homestead came into the hands of a misanthropic cripple it was little wonder that people heard of his accidental death with relief. But Phillip Villandy could make ' his malevolence towards his spinster sister Beth reach beyond the grave. The terms of his will made it necessary to seek for any possible heirs to the Villandy estate and two claimants, Joan and Edward Villandy, made a journey from America to the west of England.

If the plot of this “thriller” is a bit fantastic, Mr. Pertwee keeps action so exhilarating and his characters so true to life that the probabilities are forgotten and the desire to be “in at the death” as villains are unmasked is as keen as it was with those who went stag hunting near Four Winds and, incidentally, gave Joan her first opportunity of seeing the pleasant country homes, of England. m.'

Those who like a first-class “thriller” with not too much mystification or highbrow detective work will enjoy every page of this .book. There are no finer shades. Rascals are rascals, pretty girls are pretty, and the stolid villager, whether policeman or farm labourer, goes .about his lawful occasions , whatever murders or suicides or other excitements come within his purview. “This String. First,” by Michael •Home. (Rich and Cowan, London). There is nothing of the “thriller” in the description of village lives and business methods given in “This String First.” Topleigh village was dominated by Abel Price, who out of a “bakery another cottage and a few hundred hoarded pounds” left him by his father had become the bully of the district and its most successful business man. Owing to 'his father’s accidental death Robert Addis returns to Topleigh, and to the general store which Abel Price desired to buy from him. Robert refused and Abel set out to ruin him. The rivalry moved slowly, like most village affairs’ in England, and the climax was a long time in being reached. Although Abel Price and Robert Addis are the principal characters in this story there are many other people of considerable interest. Village life is always intimate and Topleigh people took much interest in their neighbour’s concerns. When scandal attached to Robert over “Ellen Meek,” a girl who had worked in his store, it seemed likely that Abel’s malevolence would prove too strong for the younger man.

There is little dependence upon swift action in this story. The characters are mostly ordinary people with the limited outlook of the villager. They have the tenacity of those who live in close contact with the soil, they display the jealousies and the kindliness of those who have but a limited circle of acquaintances and are hesitant to enlarge it. Those who like realism in regard to quiet people and their surroundings will enjoy this book.