Books & Writers

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21200, 24 August 1940, Page 20 (Supplement)

Books & Writers

COMMENTS AND EXTRACTS “HORLER FOR EXCITEMENT” TIGER STANDISH STORY INTRIGUE AND ADVENTURE j “Horler for Excitement,” Hodder | and Stoughton proclaim, and excitement it is when Sydney Horler puts pen to paper. In “Tiger Standish ; Steps On It,” Horler fully lives up I to his reputation. Those who have , made the acquaintance of Tiger j Standish in earlier books will wel- ' come the appearance of this latest ; story of the exploits of the British ! Secret Service man who is always | selected by the head of his depart- • ment for the most difficult and dan- ; gerous tasks of an exciting profesj sion. j The book is thoroughly modern : and Horler cleverly contrives to I weave into the story the activities of ; the agents of the totalitarian States | of Europe—not by name, but the in- > ference is there for everyone to read. | The machinations of these foreign States to wrest secrets from Britain j and to further their own ends cul- ! minates in a ghoulish plot to import | by submarine the means of destroying life in Britain as a preliminary to ! the domination of the country. How ! Tiger Standish foils the plot and saves his country is told in a narra- ! tive which for excitement and conI stant action is commended as a tonic ‘to readers. Tiger and his faithful ’ henchman are already familiar figures and they come back with a . vim and a freshness that make of the 1 book a nerve-tingling, racy and humI orous story that should not be ; missed. It is now available in New Zealand.

FINLAND’S STORY PEOPLE LIKE ENGLISH EPIC OF THE NATION “Although the English people and the Finns are very much alike in both ideals and culture, many Englishmen know very little about my country,” writes the Finnish Minister in the foreword to “The Epic of the Finnish Nation,” by Stephen De Ullmann, and the author, who was formerly Lecturer in English at the University of Budapest, explains in this short history of the Finnish people and their culture the character of those people whose President recently advised them to read good, amusing books which will make them laugh in their aid raid shelters. The Finns came from the Central Volog and are related to the Hungarians; by the seventh century they were settled in Finland and from then until the Treaty of Hamina, in 1809, when Sweden eventually ceded Finland to Russia, the country was used as a battleground for the Russo-Swedish wars. There was a romantic revival in Finland as elsewhere in the early nineteenth century, when writers first discovered and used their own language. It was not until General Mannerheim led his country to freedom in 1918 that the arts came to Finland, and in twentyone years Finland has produced Sibelius, a world-famous musician, Sillanpaa, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, and outstanding architecture and sculpture by M. Aaltonen.