THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1935
LITERARY NOTES
IRREGULAR BUT LIKEABLE
Perry Mason Again THREE BOOKS OF RECENT.
FICTION REVIEWED
(By DOROTHY L. SAYERS)
THE SPY THROUGH
THE AGES
Tales Of Espionage
THE SECRET SERVICE OF
THE ENGLISH CROWN
The story of the secret service of the English Crown has given · Mr. Richlags the opportunity to extract |to host of fascinating incidents from I cannot help it: I always enjoy the pages of our history during the Mr. Gardner's stories about Perry past 500 years. It was in 1484, he Mason. All the time I have an un-Rays, that the odious profession of easy feeling that I ought not to en-State Informer was established by joy them; that I have no business Royal Proclamation, and it was to admire a criminal lawyer whose Henry VII who became the actual methods are so unorthodox, not to founder of secret Intelligence as 1 say (In the American tongue) "un-State policy and made an intricate ethical"; that to forge documents, business of civil espionage. impersonate witnesses and suppress This secret work was an unre: evidence are shocking methods to munerative "calling, and, fudged by use in conducting a case; and that the phrasing of an entry in the Privy with a little patient industry the Puree accounts of the time, and oc- same result, might have been, attain-cupation that earned. but little ed in a soberer manner, and that I respect: "To a fellow with a beard, ought to say so; but there it isl a spy, in reward, £1.“
I agree that Mr. Mason ought to
be disbarred; and in this country would be disbarred; but I would not
The first English Ambassador to write cipher despatches was have him disbarred for the world: Cornishman sent to Spain by Henry like the man. And as he says him. VII, and he probably used a cipher
to keep his news". secret from Maximillian and Francis 1
self: "We the American people) are not like the English. The Eng. lish want dignity and order: Wo It is a little disappointing that want the dramatic and spectacular. the author, in this interesting It's a national craving." So let us, journey through the centuries, has with that fine British feeling for Kiven such small space to modern. expediency which other nations have times; the drama of secret service called by harsher names, hold the in the Great War cannot possibly be American temperament responsible dealt with adequately in so few as for the irregularities and proceed to six pages. take advantage of the results,
Watch The Dog
"The Case of the Howling Dog" has a lovely opening, in the best, Sherlock Holmes tradition. It starts; with a qreer trifle: a man in a stale of nervous collapse calls to get an injunction against, a
neighbour whose dog annoys him by howling, He also makes an odd kind of will. Then the dog's owner is shot, and his wife disappears with the other man-only she isn't his wife-; and, the dog is shot, too-and
NOVELIST FARMER
ON HUSBANDRY
"Land Everlasting"
A. G. STREET ON CURRENT ·
PROBLEMS
Hundreds are reported to have been killed by Cuban forces as President Mendleta instituted Iron-handed measures under martial law to break a revolutionary general strike, and scenes remini- scent of the 1933 outbreak, one of which is seen at the upper left, are, being re-enacted. The new photographs below and right from Havana show government forces in action.
MYSTERY STORIES'
APPEAL
THE WHEEL COMES FULL CIRCLE
"Rivers Glide On"
QUIET STORY OF RARE
DISTINCTION
of its hend
THEATRICAL TALES
NOVEL OF PROMISE
First Work Of Young Writer
"LAUGHING MOUNTAINS”.
In "Laughing Mountains," by Kay |Lynn, (Hutchinson, London, 7/6),
we have a first novel of undoubted |
ROMAN CONCEPTION
OF LIFE
Applied To Problems Of To-day
· “CIVIS ROMANUS· SUM”.
"I am a Roman," by Jack Lindsay,
promise and astonishing self-is a book of translations from Latin possession, the theme being that of verae and prose, selected not so much asto a young woman who, in defending for individual elegance her faithful servant from a mad illustrate the Roman conception of husband, inadvertently murders life and government and the Roman
dilemma.AN
the madman.
The narrative.is written in the That diiorama, Mr. Lindsay says, first person, and if there is any hung on the belief that something fault of style it lies in the almost must be done about the world, that excessive saberness and restraint virtue lived only in the selfless ap of handling and description. The plication of the governing faculty to story takes some time to gather the problems of administering and momentum. Kay Lynn, whom all defending a world which couldn't internal evidence suggests is a look after itself; but at the same woman, has been guilty of some time all actions somehow transgres rather pointless padding, as welljed the simple needs of the self. and as some which gives amusing in wisdom, after all, lay in cultivating sight into the minds of French one's own garden."
peasants: more local colour and Seeing that "Europe la only and less of "John drove me into town other word for the Roman Empire, and then drove me back" would and that the notion of human serve to round out more satisfying., brotherhood found its first concrete ly a story which is, for a modern application in Roman administrative novel, extremely short."
practice and law." Mr. Lindsay, had The plot revolves round a mere prepared his anthology, hoping: Wat handful of people; Helen, the nar-it will help remers to empty their rator, who has inherited a property minds of almost all the Roman his in the south of France and goes tory they read at school"a history there to live; Marle, the peasant of which the idens come. Very largely woman whose husband, Martin, ia from Cicero and Tacitus, both killed by Helen and his body hidden reactionaries, who could not see the by both women; and John, Helen's tidal unity of the race in which they former lover, who turns up and were caught." takes a hand in investigating the disappearance.
A somewhat puerile and only Thalf explained development is in- Itroduced with the intervention of
THE CAREER OF A SINGER
сева.
Gertrude Lawrence's John's sister, Cassandra, who ap-
"Love song" is Mr. Rupert Valentine Williams'
| Days Of Poverty
pears to have the power to dissuade Hughes's most ambitious piece of New Thriller
her brother at any moment work. It is a detailed and amus "WHAT I WANT FROM LIFE" from his engagement to Helen; an ingly written account of an unusually doelle brother! Never- "MASKS OFF AT MIDNIGHT"
American girl's career as a singer. theless Kay Lynn fulfills in her Meriel manages to reach to the The most interesting piece of own characteristic way what the heights, but it is not without a It is now very definitely en-
knowledge to be gleaned from this sets out to do. "Laughing Moun- In his latest book, Hamilton rather quaint symposium by 15 tains" is attractive light reading, part to the fact that the musical: long struggle, due for the mont tablished that there is
a strong Gibbs describes the life of a subur actore and actresses is that Gertrude and with a little more body and world would seem to possess so This is called "everybody's book section of the English fiction ban family and aid on the land." Mr. Street is not only reading public for which the deter-particular. Mr. Hibberd is a philo-
in Lawrence was once a barmaid. little less restraint in description, many oddities. The .composer really howl, and if not, why not?-a novelist but also a farmer who tiva story stands out with most sopher who works in a firm of im- been left penniless in Shrewsbury perusing.-M.C.M.
It was when she was 15 and had her next novel should be well worth whom she marries la hardly more. and it all gets deeply involved and cultivates the farm he was born on. prominent appeal. Gone are the porters in the City. He wishes to because the manager of a touring
fantastic than the conductor who' dramatic; but the great thing is, to Recognising more clearly than most days of Sherlock Holmes and in rise above the routine and daily company had "skipped." The land show.
is always so eager for her suc of us the difficulties that buset his place has come keep your eye on the dog.
the modern round of his existence and find lady of the hostelry. where she was "Someone said, "There's a pretty Next comes Mr. Phillips Oppen. British farmers, he has asked him- merchant in crime.
out by travel and experience the staying said she might stay on till nifty little barmaid down at the Red should be added that her struggles In fairness to Mr Hughes it heim with a tale about a queer look for salvation.
self to what the countryman may
Of this class, Trevor Dene, of real pleasures of life. boarding-house.
something turned up if she would Lion-she's had stage experience; are by no means the ordinary ones, There is probably,
Scotland Yard--the creation of Va-
In his position as a father of a lend a hand in the bar. When the why not get her? So they got me, and his immensely long book, a 'good deal of queerness always His main conclusion is that wheat. lentine Williams-is one of the lead- family of four his lot is unenviable: next company reached the town they and I put on a nun's habit and sang written throughout with gusto, hidden behind the respectable front owing to our climate, is not an ing lights and he is seen at his best for his eldest son has reached the want a girl to sing "My Rosary" "My Rosary before each perfomance, forms an attactively unusual pax- ages. of London boarding-houses appropriate British crop, and that ex ones more in "Masks off at Mid- troublesome age when he seeks his in front of the curtain before the land then scampered back to my bar, orama. but this one was querrer than most, perience and common sense suggest night,"
(Hodder and Stoughton,.
from home in) and even before the Major was mura concentration on live-stock and London, 7/6), the scene of which doubtful haunts, while his sister is dered. Mr. Roger Ferrison had begun perishable foodstuffs. In a nutshell: laid in America.
also blossoming out in an unsatie- to wonder about the boarders who "In my boyhood wheat was the
factory, manner. came in so late, and about the land principal turn and the production of utekly and as thickly as it does in under their mother's firm thumb, in Here the mystery deepens just as members of the family, are held The two younger Indy's curious rules concerning door milk, egg, and other perishable England or elsewhere: in fact, a way which irritates both them keys, and one thing and another. 1 foodstuffs were (sic) by comparison having crossed the pond, Mr. Wil and their father. think he fell too easy a victim to the only mere sideshows. meretricious and too-oo-obvious sex-To-day the wheel of progress has transpontine method of attack in woman, who appears to order her liams appears to have adopted a Mrs. Hibberd is a domineering appeal of the lovely lime girl (who turned so that the sideshows of my his latest volume, all the action of family about in an unnecessary between you and me, is a bit of a boyhood are now the principal turna, which covers a very brief period. fashion. bore); but he fortunately contrived and wheat is but a very small sidé-)
are
pleasures. away
And thus it happens However, chapter after chapter that when Mr. Hibberd wins the
to keep his heart, though not always show, and it is high time that this his head, in the face of temptatios. fact was admitted both by politicians reveals nothing but mystery added! Irish Sweep he provides his wife upon mystery until the last few with more than enough money and The characters of the other "Strangeland. by farmera." Boarders of Palace Crescent" "For the first time since the war." lines bring the denouement and takes his small daughter with him sketched in a very lively way, and Mr. Street says, "we have a Minister al's well with the world again. to see the world.. the tale is kept moving with all its of Agriculture who shows active! The mystery is solved and Trevor author'a paual skill, until the dear concern for the welfare of Dene is probably well on towards The plot divides at this point, old lady with the knitting tells what animal husbandry which ... is the solution of another tragedy soon and one is shown Mr. Hibberd size knows and brings the affair to whole edifice of British farming, to be laid before his ever-widen-travelling with his daughter Ruth. A happy conclusion,
and it is the which alone, to my ing circle of readers.-J.W.F.
Murder Of An Açtor
"Murder in Make-up" is a perfect-
ly good mystery about the stabbing}
mind, shows a gleam of hope for the future of our farming industry.”.
of a film actor. A commendable LIVELY BOOK WITH
feature of the plot is the neat way in which we are kept hesitating over the motive for the murder; and the
alibi also has an Ingenious little
hoist in it. The detective amateur is one of those casual, silly-ass pee- ple who turn out to be somebody important in the Secret Service (not) that this is a Secret Service yarn;
of good work to come.
INGENIOUS PLOT.
Another Adventure Of Daphne Wrayne
"THE GRIP OF THE FOUR"
THE "MODERN" GIRL Light-Hearted Study Of Youth
"THE DOOR OPENS," BY MURIEL HINE
Good Description
They go to Italy where they meet Mrs. Bramshaw, a delightful charac- ter, whom they have already come across in England. With her they stay and the author here uses his' descriptive pawers with great ad- Ivantage. Italy is ever a delight
ful country, and Hamilton Gibbs describes it well.
Meanwhile at home both the twins, Hubert and Sylvia, are get- ting into trouble. The former is The modern girl" is not always defrauding his mother, and the understood by her grandmother; latter has had a troublesome love but is she so careless and s0 11-affair. The younger son, Michael,
the murder is purely domestic) ; and Mark Cross, in "The Grip of the disciplined as the older generation has joined the Air Force-a son- he is quite a pleasant specimen of Four" (Ward Lock, London. 3/6), likes to think? Muriel Hine's new sible action which is considered a his kind.
Apart from occasional Provides us with a second episode of novel-it is her twenty-first-shows tragedy by his mother.. naivete of style and presentation, Daphne Wrayne, a wealthy girl bar-how even the shrewdest of dowagers In desperation, Mrs. Hibberd this is an agreeably written story, rister, and her four Adjusters, which may be forced to change her opinion, calls her husband home, and he .and if it is, as it seems to be, a first is even more thrilling and mysterious Lady Printe is fond of little Phillida, leaves Ruth in Italy in the handa On his return novel, it gives considerable promise than Its predecessor Daphne Wrayne, but objects of her treatment of her of Mrs. Bramshaw.
Sir Hugh Williamson, dauntless ex- Invalid father, her general wildness, he investigates and discovers that. plorer, and Lord "Jimmy" Trevitter, and her "pack" of men friends. In Hubert has shattered his banking popular peur, sportsman and actor, reality, however, Phillida is the most account, and when he has settled figure in this novel more than do dutiful of daughters, who, when a these affairs Mfr. Hibberd finds him- Martin Everest, K., and Alan scheming Eurasian girl worms her self once more in his old position Sylvester London actor-manager, way into the family and captures with his old routine. His dreams "The Thing," a Killer, is at large the invalid, shows herself quite as are still unrealized. near Loch Ralnafg. Several persons capable as her elders of dealing with The plot and the style are good, have disappeared under mysterious an awkward situation, and the book will be appreciated by
those who like a quiet story. circumstances, and each case is dis With the "pack" dancing attenG.J.P.C. "The publication in one volume of missed by the police with a plausible dance upon her It includes, by the Mra. Garnett's admirable trans-explanation. The Adjusters, formad, way, an admiral's son turned waiter Tations of Turgenev's "A Month into aid the public where the polke the girl may seem to be of the the Country," "A Provincial Lady,' fall, have been invited to unravel butterfly type, but it is not until
TURGENEV'S PLAYS
Excellent Translation Of Great Works
and "A Poor, Gentleman" (Cassell, the mystery, a mission which they "The Door Opens"-Just how I will QUALITY PRINTING
75. 68.), should do someting to perform with credit. Mark Crous not say that she cares to settle her populariae the work of one of the tells his story in a lively and in-own affairs and, incidentally, earn greatest dramatists of the nine rentous manner with an arresting har grandmother's respect. teenth century. It is better flavour quite its own 71 recommend It is a light-hearted study of known in the English theatre. this book-WHO
With Quick
Service
Modern?
"THE
Modern indeed are the youth of
-day but'v
I with an old-fashioned taste in cigarettes. They prefer Capstan, the cigarette that has
been popular for so many years!
Capstan
FERRED