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Just by way of being perverse, and a little different from the average husband of modern fiction, the hero in "The Uncertain Trumpet,” A. S. M. Hutchinson’s latest novel, is really in love with his wife, thus confounding all the village gossips and the thousands of readers who will follow the destinies of Pelham and Dawn. The triangle is completed with “Banjo”— Pelham’s ne’er-do-well half-brother—-who, of course, does the right thing and fades out of the picture when he realises that he is playing “gooseberry.” There is a secondary story of Quest, the rector, who makes a reformed character of “Banjo.” The book is intensely moral, abounding with the usual rumour and mischief-making associated with a small village, and the author continues to indulge in his fancy for queer names.

It is suggested by a contributor to the Glasgow Herald that those who are seeking substitutes for worn-out words and phrases might give attention to the efforts of William Barnes, the Dorset poet, who attempted to construct an ideal vocabulary of pure AngloSaxon origin, shorn of all foreign derivations. Among his suggestions were the substitution of redecraft for logic, deemsterhood for criticism, folkwain for omnibus, pushwainling for perambulator, manqualm for epidemic, wortlore for botany, chiidteam for generation, wirespell for telegram, flrehost for electricity, statespellman for ambassador, folkdom for democracy, and fourwinkle for quadrangle. Barnes! seems, however, to have let enthusiasm outrun sense of humour in believing that even a philosopher would consent to transform syllogism into redeship of three thoughtputtings.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THD19300405.2.63.4

Bibliographic details

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18536, 5 April 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

Word Count
250

Untitled Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18536, 5 April 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)

Untitled Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18536, 5 April 1930, Page 14 (Supplement)