WHAT LONDON IS READING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21216, 10 December 1938, Page 12

WHAT LONDON IS READING

VIRTUE IS NOT ENOUGH

THE 6TORY OF NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN (Specially written for "The Timaru Herald" by Charles Pilgrim) LONDON, November 4. Mr Rex Warner is one of those novelists who has not escaped the lure of current political events. In “The Professor” (Boriswood) he has been either surprisingly prophetic or his pen has worked very rapidly on actualities. The scene of the novel is a small state in Middle Europe. Around it are greedy and threatening neighbours A crisis menaces the government who are anxious for leadership. In the state's capital is the Professor, a man known and honoured for his goodness and wisdom. He is invited to become Chancellor and unwillingly accepts the post. He has all the virtues which a man and a professor should have, but he lacks the quality of rapid ruthlessness. His virtues cannot deal with the situation; his own people turn against him and he is shot as a traitor. This plot may be obviously applied. Clearly, the gifted author has his eye on the world to-day and a moral for its peoples. But he has not written a lifeless tract. The characters and the events are movingly presented. No reader need fear the book on account of dullness. We are made to see that the political world contains drama as arresting and, in its way, exciting as any we may hope to find in personal or domestic developments. Still Mere Than Somewhat Mr Damon Runyon has had, and has. deservedly, a great vogue. He has invented a set of characters and a manner of speech as original and attractive in their way as those of Mr P. G. Wodehouse. “Take It Easy” (Constable) is his latest collection of stories about that set of characters we have already learned to know and treasure in “More Than Somewhat” and “Furthermore.”

These who do not know Mr Runyon already should be delighted to meet him for the first, time, but there will be many others who will come to him now as to an old friend. It is true that the crooks and dames whose adventures. are made so entertaining cannot be considered desirable either in morals or actions when judged by any puritanical standard. None 'the less, we cannot withold our sympathetic regard, although we may be thankful that our ways are not cast in their midst. 1 The Peacemaker Mr Stuart Hodgson is known as a facile and experienced writer. He has lived up to his reputation in producing a, short life of the British Prime Minister in “The Man Who Made Peace” (Christophers) and bringing it out within three weeks of’ the events he chronicles in the latter pages. In this sympathetic study he is able to show that the early training in commerce which Mr Neville Chamberlain received stood him in good stead when he had to deal suddenly and firmly with one of the greatest and most terrible crises which has ever beset the world. Into this small book the author has packed a large quantity of information. We learn of Mr Chamberlain’s early seven years in the Bahamas where he went at the request of his father; of his abandonment of business and rapid rise in the political sphere. We learn something of his tastes and recreations and of the help he has always received from his wife. Before all else, we learn that it has always been Mr Chamberlain's way in a difficulty to go straight to the man or men who seemed'to be difficult. This was his way last September and the way he succeeded.

Seeing Leningrad It is pleasant to come across a book on the Russia of to-day which does not express or attempt to arouse violent emotion or prejudice. “The Closed City” (Hutchinson) by Dame Una Pope-Hennessy is an account of a visit to Leningrad last year. Dame Una’s interest and object were not political. Her main intention was to visit as many as possible of the palaces built and enriched by the Emperors and Empresses in the past three centuries. She found the majority of these palaces well preserved and accessible. She was able to enjoy the splendours of the new Russian Ballet and as a Catholic to attend a religious service. But she could not be unconscious of the general air of oppression and poverty which beset her in the streets. All the same, she is able to write without antagonism towards the present regime and to enterlain a faith that the spirit of the Russian people will see them through to a realisation of what she describes as social service. This is a book of undoubted personal charm. The author writes with humour and sympathy. She is puzzled by a great deal of what she saw and not least by the mystery which lends the title to her book: from March of this year Leningrad was forbidden to all foreign residents, even Consular Agents having to leave or being transferred to Moscow. Potted Wisdom “Candidus” hides the name of a distinguished English publicist who has just brought out a series of reprinted articles with the title “The Sense of Things" (Hodder and Stoughton). These articles each of only' a few hundred words deal with an almost infinite variety of subjects. No attempt should be made to read them at one sitting as the book calls for dippings. The dippings will always be worth while for the author has managed to compress accumulated wisdom. The subjects dealt with vary from the extremes of gravity to frivolity, but they are never unintelligently treated. Long practice in approaching a wide newspaper public has enabled the author to say what 1 e wants to say in the simplest manner. He bas tvf’Md “The Rights of Women" “More T-.'. Am Feminine Topics” wad “The Young Ide(. 4 ” He has ranged through his own tast-.” and humours in dealing with the arts. He has written Rbcut education and politics. In the two hundred and fifty small essays “Candidus” has ranged over nearly the whole of life and has never been dull. Few books of to-day can be more strongly recommended to anyone who wishes to combine enjoyment with improvement. A multitude of bright and arresting thoughts spring out of the lines and through them one may easily become a happier and wiser man or woman.