The Library Corner

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19771, 19 February 1927, Page 13 (Supplement)

The Library Corner

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Mxnss an to ba toßtofl, oana to be smOlovaQ, ud KMM few to be cltawed and <U£este<l.” —Bacoa.

“THE KEDGLOVE SKIPPER.” (By LAWRENCE DAVID: Leonard Parsons, London.) Here we have a story of the war time, though it is not a war story. “The Kid-Glove Skipper” is John Bridgeman, first seen as a sub-lieuten-ant, R.N.R., serving on one of his Majesty’s warships. Of the other characters, only one matters just here — Irene Bute. Brought up in the conventional atmosphere of a Surrey village, she goes to work in a Government office when war breaks out, soon becomes U war-time flapper wise in the ways of London, then becomes worse, and later much worse. She gets John into a horrible scrape, as a consequence of which he deserts from the navy, but as the Armistice ensues immediately no unpleasant results follow on that score. But ho has much unpleasantness iu other directions. He ships as a seaman on the trump steamer jUatlow which wallows all over the Seven Seas looking for cargoes. By virtue of being a good seaman, he is taken out of the forecastle, and, once he is found to be a a good navigator as well, his promo- • tion is rapid. Eventually he commands the Catlow. ’Then Irene comes into his life Ugain by stowing away on his ship. He has to endure her presence, but things happen when they are in a West-Indian port. Bent on annoying him, Irene chooses to lock the ch art room and throw the key away tit the very moment when the skipper dis covers that an out-size hurricane is approaching. With the one thought of getting his shin awtay to the open sea. he demands the key from Irene. She laughs. He threatens. She defies him. Then he procures a strap, and gives her what she ought to have had yrtirs before, the father of ti jolly good hid ing. However he steers the Catlow through the storm. Irene, somehow, docs not resent her thrashing, she has a sense of values. John is good-hdarted and simple-minded. So after talking matters over, they decide to sail the future in company as “chummy ships.” “The Kid-Glove Skipper” is written by a man who evidently knows the seta and ships. He has something of the touch of Joseph Conrad, and what he lacks in the latter’s poetic fancy he intakes up for in vivid and truthful des cription. One can almost see the ship and her crew and can almost smell th;tang of salt water. The ship’s fight through the hurricane is magnificently told. It would thrill oven a real sailor man, that severest and most cynical critic of sea stories. A boy would describe it as a corking good yarn. And the boy would bo right. “NADINE.” (By G. P. ROBINSON: Duckworth, London.) .Described aa a romantic comedy. “Nadine ’is a capital book. Tom Weymouth decides that he needs a holi dhy, but it must be spiced with ad ven ture. Choosing his holiday resort at random by the simple method of sticking a pin in a list of names, he hies himself to Maranos, a comic opera island in the Eastern Mediterranean.' The island htas a reigning prince, ami also holds a lovely princess—Nadine— in addition to various appurtenances of feudal pomp. The prince is a blighter, but the princess is lovely. Also it has a large colony of foreign riff-raff, war refugees from Heaven knows wher A , who follow the lead of a blood-thirsty ruffibn who aims at a revolution and a republic, with himself as president. And finally there is Davreau, a charm ing, dare-devil Frenchman, who sticks close to Weymouth as a brother and goes through many adventures with him. Weymouth soon gets hll th e excitement he is looking for. The revolution comes off, there are war, murder, and sudden death, escapes, thrills. Even “The Prisoner of Zenda” is tame beside it. Of course Tom gets through safely, and equally of course he carries Nadine off find marries her. All this seems melodramatic enough, but so well is the story written that one revels in it. It is told in a style of cheerful nonchalance, it sparkles throughout with wit and humour. It never flags for a moment, and through out till its breezy pages there is not a dull line. A book well worth the reading. “THE VEIL OF GLAMOUR.” (By CLIVE ARDEN: Leonard Parsons, London). Meg and Frank are two writing people, not yet past their youth, and each intent on a career. They fancy themselves in love, but tire not sure, and dread the thought or marrying only to discover they are mistaken.* So they decide on what they call a “marriage o n approval.” But it is not ti “trial marriage,” on the contrary it is a perfectly proper arrangement. It simply means that they live in the same house for a year, seeing as much of each other as possible, and ttiking mutual stock. They begin to thank their stars that they have done so. Mog develops a habit of sneering criticism. Frank, restive under this, reveals the possesion of a temper. Then they Separate. Frtink goes off to Morocco for a spell, and a little later Mcg decides on a holiday in the same sunny clime. Frank gets captured by wild Artibs and Mcg is instru mental in effecting a wonderful rescue. Then they forget the sneers and the temper and decide to marry after all. They are quite happy at the end of three years. The story shuts down there, so one does not know how long it lasted. The story is written in dull lan<l laboured stylo, and’ the reader is bored long before the end is reached.

THE MAGAZINES. “The Comer” for December (per C. W. Poynter) is a good collection of stories of short, medium, and fulllength. Frank H. Shaw writes another good sea story in “The Reluctant Passenger, “ while another outstanding 'feature in a partieulraly good budget is “The Bat,” the novel of the sensa tional play a.nd film. Other stories by Olive Wadsler, Edward Woodward, Norman Vermcr, and others go to make this a very satisfactory issue. The “Mystery” Magazine, th® “New” Magazine bnd ‘‘Hutchinson’s all January numbers (per N. P. Rowell) are excellent productions. The “Mystery” contains another instalment of “Roger Sinclair’s Treasure,” and among the writers contributing were William 1c Quex, Anthony Wynne, Paul Jacobs, Captain Arthur Dallas, and others whose names are sufI licient guarantee of good fare. | Another instalment of the new story by P. G. Wodehouse, ‘“fhe Small Bachelor,” sustains his reputation as an'original humourist and helps to make the “New” worth the money spent. Frank 11. Shaw also contributes a sea story, and our old friend, W. W. Jacobs, is here with ail the delicious humour of another of the nightwatchman’s stories in which Ginger Mick and Peter Russet figure. Other good yarns make the January “New” a i most acceptable number. | Admirers of “The Scarlet Pimpernal” will find another of his adven- ‘ tures thrillingly told by Baroness Orezy in “Hutchinson’s”. Kathlyn Rhodes, Ethel M. Doll, Cosmo Hamilton, and W. Heath Robinson are other well known names among the list of contributors to the January number, which is a first-class one iu all respects. TREASURE HUNT IN BOOKCASES WIDESPREAD SEARCH FOR RARE EDITIONS. Bookcases all over England are being overhauled. “If you have rare editions, be prepared to sell them now.” has become the book-lover’s slogan. Book enthusiasts, encouraged by the success of Mrs. Miller, of ELemel Hempstead, who sold a chance-found first edition of John Bunyan's “Country Rimes for Children” for more than £2,000, are hoping to discover forgotten and unrecognised treasures that have been neglected for years. Auctioneers and booksellers sine® this Bunyan sale have been inundated with letters about old editions, and there is scarcely an old copy of Bunyan left on its shelf in peace. Many men and women hav® eteo written and sent their books to Mr. i Rowlatt-Jones, the honorary librarian of Hum el Hempstead, who was instrumental in disposing of the book for Mrs Miller. “All kinds of books have been sent to me to inspect since the sale of the Bunyan book,” said Mr. RowlattJones to a press representative, “but so faT I have not found anything of any real value. “It is curious how the Bunyan book of simple little children’s rhymes has survived through all these ages. It has survived through a sheer accident. The printer attached it to a copy of the ■ ‘ Water of Life/ which had many pages of advertisements. These additions prevented the rhyming sheets ' from being destroyed by the destruct- ; ive fingera of children long ago.’’ NOTES. A correspondent of the Boston Transcript quotes the following extraordinary (or was it mcUnt to be sarcastic?) sentence from “The Green Hat”: —“All over the room elderly women were dancing with young men of both sexes. ’ ’ Another correspondent of the same paper asks if there was a worse bit of syntax ever perpetrated than the following from A. S. M. Hutchinson’s new novel, “One Increasing Purpose”: “His thought was all of that which she must suffer if she came out marred, marred as she would bo as much more worse than common folk Us more supremely lovely than every other she had been. ’ ’ Mr Jerome K. Jerome hb.s some interesting things to tell (in his recently published Memoirs) about his co-citi-zens in the English canton of letters. For example, when he was still a solicitor’s clerk, “I remember having to answer an enquiry as to whether Alfred Harmsworth was likely to prove a desirable tontint for a room in Chancery lane at £3O a year. My instructions were to reply ‘guardedly.’ ” Here also is an amusing note by Mr Jerome on Bottomley: “Bottomley had a wonderful tongue. I remember a shareholders’ meeting, culled together for the sole and express purpose of denouncing him. Half of them were in favour of lynching him. He talked to them for three-quarters of an hour; and now and then there wore tears in his eyes. Before he sat down he had launched a new company on them. Tho majority of them subscribed to it before they loft the room.” Mr Bookies Willson has written a I history of. the British Embassy in ; Paris. The book deals with the diplo- ■ rnatic relations between France and Great Britain since the Duke of Wellington was appointed British Ambassador to Paris in 1814. when he acquired the present building in the Rue Faubourg St. Honore from Princess Pauline Bonaparte. A full account is given of the Duke’s fourteen successors, from Sir Charles Stuart. Lord Bue’s grandson, to the Marquis of Crew