FROM BOOKSTALL & STUDY

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 456, 18 May 1932, Page 5

FROM BOOKSTALL & STUDY

“ The Desert Column,” by lon L. Idriess. Published by Angus and Robertson, Ltd., Sydney. lon L. Idriess, who has been so much in the limelight of late with his “ Lasseter’s Last Ride,” “ Flynn of the Inland ” and 11 Prospecting for Gold,” proves a capable and most interesting diarist. The 379 diary pages of his do- ! ings as an Australian trooper in Gallipoli, Sinai and Palestine make an immense appeal. His first-hand description of the fighting and conditions on Gallipoli, and the stirring tales of the exciting life of the ** Desert Column in Sinai and Palestine, are sufficient in themselves to give his book a place apart from all other literature ot the war, but add to this the author’s neat touches of humour, his authentic tales of tvpical “ Aussie ” horsemen in the guerilla warfare at which they excelled, and the sketches and stories of officers whose names are household words in New Zealand as well as in Australia, and you have something unique. The descriptive work shows accuracy and remarkable observation, and, without any hint of self-praise, he shows how verv effective the “ Anzac ” mounted rifles" were as a desert fighters. His criticism is intelligent and typically Australian. For example“ There is wrath in our camp. We have to polish up bits and stirrups. They have seen three years’ service and are good for more, but some English General thinks we will look more soldierly if our stirrups are bright. The fool does not think of the glint in the sun for a sniper’s rifle. So we sit and curse and polish rusty stirrup-irons and gaze on the flat where shrapnel is tearing the lives from our men, and wonder and wonder whether England really does want to win the war.” This remarkable book, with the trooper’s story of Gallipoli and of the war training which made the Anzac mounted brigades so effective that they

quickly established a superiority over the regular cavalry pitted against them in the concluding stages, holds a very special attraction for all Australians and New Zealanders. “To Catch a Thief,” by Lee Thayer. Published by Hurst and Blackett, Ltd. Copy from Whitcombe and Tombs. Peter Clancy, well known to all who have read Lee Thayer’s books, gives his impeccable servant, Wiggar, a large share of the work which results in the recovery of the missing Stanton pearls. Wiggar, impersonating an English nobleman, is immense, and carries out his part in a manner which helps to make this story one of the best of the Lee Thayer mysteries. ; “ The Mistress,” by Gideon Clark. Published by Nash and Grayson. Copy from Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd. Dorothy, the schoolmistress, does not find romance until she passes the thirtymark, and then, alas! her love is given to a man already married. Belonging tc a class forbidden marriage, and, indeed, any relationship with men except that of simple friendship on pain of the loss of livelihood, and cast into an age short of men and still shorter of men able to keep a wife as a luxury, Dorothy, like many another when inclination and opportunity coincide, finds ample argument against sex-star-vation. Without sneering at convention, Gideon Clark’s story illustrates that what society calls sin may bring beauty, happiness and love into lives which would otherwi.se be colourless and even miserable. Though some of ; the safely married women may not agree with the author’s sentiment, every reader is certain to find enjoyment in this very fine story with its lifelike characters, daring humour and unconventional plot.