Books and Their Writers

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16903, 30 November 1922, Page 11

Books and Their Writers

{*j Notes by

" The Reviewer"

SYDNEY V-'Hi.X MACQUARIE MAS governor. ‘ - |t tv■ sttch tin evoninp ns most toung men in this .day or that would i.-ivt ■'entertained tile verv plt-H.-iinust 1 ■ 'collections of.” That is Mr if. M. Abbott’s summing up of tire first oi - :ode in i ho careers of Ensign (.aider and .his friend Eicu Lenanti Gregory Vicks. of the sister Service. Ik- re- I counts in his latest, book. •• Jin-i an Cal del'.” The neroes mine out in t lie J ship Emu to the settlement at Port ; Jaekson in the Colony of New South I Males when Etichlan .Macquarie was Governor. 't hose were stirring days, i end Mr Abbott tells vividly of some | sixteen happenings, in nearly all of i which the Ensign was in the cast and in must of which his mate was with i him. One ot the most interesting ; stories of the set. however, i one in 1 vQich they take no part. "Hector! Hastings,” which contains an account ; of crimes and a remarkable ooinei- j dence. There is not one of the stories that locks nje.ru. and i he chapter heading illustration s by Vernon Lovimer a re quaint -snd worthv. (Sydney, . N.S.V.h Book'.tail Company.) SOME MORE OF VAT GOULD'S ' -i MANS. •• Stephen Marloy accommodated ; them all, n-> matter what ‘the aironut- ' required. H< had no limit, but laid the full odds ;it St.o-ting Price even i if the - v.r -f mo linnd* ,:, d ro one. Ide knew I'V'i'.hody worth knowing in racing circles; was lamiiiar with [Jukes rod E uls and so on down the peerage, and bad transacted business with Kingend Princes .and Maharajahs of the Indian Empire. . . . ” So when one very foggy London night, 1 n 1 ter ih • tlieat.o. a derelict manages to assist the turf leviathan in finding i bis car you may bet that derelict is :v luck. What the luck is Xit Gould • tells in "At Starting Price. - ’ one of ! the latest oi his multitudinous work? ! Jr. " A Gamble for Loro '* is described the exciting time Denis Laurenny has in his pursuit ol the wealthv American widow Fay Delaunay. whose. • haunting fa. lias caused havoc in our masculine ranks.” Of course there are various races including an j •* astounding “ match between the I 1 orses owned by Ear and Denis. And ' as usual the story moves without a | pause from start to finish. (London. | John Long.) SHILLY-SH ALLYING AND j SHEIKHS. Diana shot her lover a sidelong ' unquiet glance. Jt was the lookin his eyes which most arrested Diana —sombre eyes which could light with fire now they were cold and watchful ■ An inclination to re- ; volt began to take possession of ' Diana ' Which being the case there j is not a hopeful augury for the happiness of the heroin* of Mr Cecil H. ; Builivant's romance. A Daughter ot j Allah. ' And withm a. few pages Diana finds herself in a situation where : Death itself was sweet, with itroiig arms about her. the arms of a stronger Ross's arms holding her fast—for love's dear sake.” But she marries the man with the sombre eyes and th* honeymoon trip is to Egypt. There through the agency of an early Arab flame of her husband’s. Diana discovers " she had worshipped a god of clay whose feet were merged in. mire.” Being a coward, he would not confess, and worse than that h? attempts a double betrayal of the revengeful c'd love. Diana docs som*; o .-!!«.i,: r ici with a Browning

pistol, winning her wav out, and on'** type of virtue L rewarded. . There i i-; plenty of colour in ** The Daughter . of Allah." (.London; Jarvoid's). MORE POSTHUM OP S GOULD. “ For two brief years he had beet, j a big plunger, and. as usual, gone Is*. j the wall. His luck had been so bad | that nothing ever won for him. fie j did not care, as a noor man, to stay J arid face the world lit l had lived in. after playing with money in the mos- i reckless fashion. He. told no one os | his intention to go to Australia, but, ; he know there would he more chanc : i for him there.’’ That’s why Duncan j Dawlish was on a steamer for Sydnev And the fact that he became interested in a woman whom he saw on the wharr meeting a fellow-passenger had a bearing oil the course of Hi- colonial career j us hero of Nat Gould’s new yarn. A j Dangerous St a ble. ” Just ouo quota j lion from which it mav be gathered j “ So awful did he look, like ;i devil unchained, that she gave a piercing cry. which sounded shrill and clear.” (London: John Long). NOT VALMOND OR PONT!AG. “He was only a lad of fourteen and the girl was onlv eight . . . an instant later the girl was in his arms. The Ikiv kept looking at his boots with the brass-tipped toes. He hated them.” Fabian and Carnac | Grier are a trouble to old John Grier, j the cantankerous lumber king; Fabian j finishes up a row h\- going over to the j enemy. John Grier’s trade rival. Cat - j imc. who gives his name to Gilbert j Carnac. the lad of the brass-tipped j boots, though he yearns for fame in ! the artistic world, yet is energetic and j takes hold with John Grier. Then he i gets into a fake-marriage tangle that . bars him from the girl he kissed at j fourteen. and enters the political • arena. Before the tangle is straight- I ened out there is a surprising draniati ■ j denoument ; Carnao's mother discloses j a secret hidden for years when Destiny takes its revenge for an early indis- j cretion. The story is full of move- I ment but one misses the grip of the ] •• Pretty Pierre ” stories of Sir Oil- ; I bert’s earlier period. (London; Hod - i : dei- and Stoughton). ST F A I)’ S RltA' 1 KAY. NOYEA! BE I i 11 *• The alternative (to the United States wiping off the- ledger the was i debts due t.hen is the vicious circle ! of devious diplomacy, sinister com mo r- : cialism. corrupt p*Jiticalism, and the 1 going; hack of the race to barbarism. ! That is Air Meredith Atkinson’s view j of the position. He also considers that the policy of the Allied Powers in ! dealing with the Prussianised Turk in the Near East is deplorable ; and tha*. • Democracy is proven to lead to J oligarchy Flaws in the British sys- ! t=rn of government, the Hongkong | strike and the position of Chinese : seamen, a. poem by Alys Hungerfard ! giving a. very depressing picture of a poor Irishwoman, facts as to the campaign against venereal disease in Uganda, an appreciation of Edouard Descamps (the lender of the .Belgian section of the Inter-Parliamentary Union), a statement of France’s case for her militaristic attitude, a, translation of documents discovered at Petersburg dealing with responsibilitv for the War. comments by Mrs Elsie Morton of Auckland on Women in Politics an'! the usual features make an interesting number.