THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 1, 1958.
The Virginian lady forgets herself at the Palace
VICTORIA, ALBERT AND MRS STEVENSON. Edited by
Edward Boykin. Muller. 25s. 308 pages.
ABOVE Mrs Stevenson's great initiated by Inscription. "Her life was beautifully illustrated by devoted piety and expanding benevolence. Meek, gentle, frank, artless and confiding, ahe seemed to have been created to be loved."
The editor's commentary on ********* this selection of Mrs Steven- sen's letters from London is an the same uncritical and exalted level.
Mrs Stevenson's virtues cert be taken for granted. Her wit has to be. Yet the letters which she sent home more than a century ago have a value of
o their
They own.
show London In the last years of William IV's reign and the first of Victoria's as it appeared a Virginian lady of good family who observed the scene with B sharp eye and with the excite- ment of innocence. The result Is a book that is effusive and
n
endearing, but of sight literary
incrit.
Bewildering
by GEORGE MALCOLM THOMSON
Let Your Nose Guide You
NATURE IS YOUR GUIDE. By Harold Gatty. Collins. For..
OR three hours we had flak been flying over
FOR
and searchlights, but I had not seen them, I had been watching 'blips" of light on
a radar screen and marking
BARBIE GETS HER MAN
WHEN THE CALL ME
CROSS TURNS OVER. By D'Arcy Niland. Angus and Robertson, 13. 6d. 256 pages.
HOSE who saw the play
ara contion they con- Toum who thethe ven
voyed chart.
ánavigation teenth Doll will already.
have made the acquaintance
the BOOK PAGE
My idea of what makes a
SQUARE
-by JOHNNY DANKWORTH
—VOTED BRITAIN'S TOP BAND LEADER AND THE YOUNGEST OF THE MEN WHO LEAD BRITAIN'S BIG BANDS. THE
UST what exactly is Sometimes reports of tho numbers of recordo sold are BOOK
a square? There growly exaggerated. More than ́
artist who many de- one
presented PAGE chute.
finitions. But let's try to 1,000,000-sale golden disc has On foot in Germany I had
Even novel affords to fill in for builds her a sheek and gives be a little more precise. been inter found to be rather
bad at arithmetic, and
Then we were hit; the sud-of the Australian "outback." den panic, fire, the uncomfortable Mr Niland uses the greater swing
at the and of a park- freedom both of language and of movement which the
no blips and no chart.
for centuries-eclected the Pole life. at the door-a visitor knocks Star and guided myself by that. and rings, a servant rings the
Stars alone postman knocks twice
There was a moment at the Luckily for me there was
are
number.
been
bus with the coveted
millon
my pocket compass was broken. us a lot of the detail of her a joey, but she never forgets To some of us a square is
Fun. Once their paths cross I did what travellers have done that rough and primitive and she learns that that wicked/someone who doesn't like dwindles to less than half that girl was lying But is too modern-or perhaps, The truth leaks out when the royalty returns for the tune are 1ts heroine Barbie Corabon is late now; or would have been if traditional jazz.
To a providential heart disease
others a skimte-hater is calculated, presented as the ideal of out- hadn't carried off Joe and the a square, or someone who can't back womanhood. There's no joey at one weep and left her take Elvis Presley-os Frank, Palace when the daughter of clear sky. An expensive course frilly nonsense about her she Virginian rebels forgot where in air navigation had given me as loyal, tough and independent free to pick up with Fas where Sinatra. Or a lover of "straight" friendly land,
the climate was she was. But the good Counters nothing more than a lowledge or any man but as loving and they left of. awful, but the roads were Ludoft was at hand to admonish of the stars to help me on my lovable as any woman. In short
excellent.
suy
Duchesses blazed
"Proy, her:
dear Mrs way, with diamonds. Their dukes Stevenson, do not lean against saw to it that Mr Stevenson (to that pilar." the simple delight of his wife) shot far more than his fair share of the pheasants.
The Republican lady trom Virginia wrote in her own way
of
of
customs the strange
English society:
"Wealth is nothing as to the rank it gives, tho' all important as to the comforts. In vatti, the In 1830, Andrew Stevenson, rich bankers and merchants give her husband, became American feasts of which Lucullus might Minister In London. He repre- have been happy to have par- sented a country which could taken, they are forced to keep poor within their own magic circle. then be regarded sn
"Everything here is different relation.
"Saille Coles Stevenson found from what it is with us, even the herself in a busy, bewildering but manner of knocking and ringing
-RECORDS by IAN ROBSON-
Here is history
Now, 15 winter's night,
усага
that
she combines the male virtues with the female measurements. after
MAN OF IRON Harold Gatty, On essential matters, however, the man who navigated Wiley Left an orphan by the death Mr Stevenson stood firm. One Post in his first flight round of her father in the opal mines, Sunday evening at Lambton the world, has published a book she sets off into the surround- Curtle the Duke of Sussex, which would have
bern In- ing world to find a mate worthy uncle of Queen Victoria, pro- valuable to me then,,,
of herself, catching a living and posing play cards, remarked He explains men's earliest lending a hand now on a farm, that he believed this was con- methods of pathfinding, and now in a store, now at a fair, sidered a sin in the States.
why primitive man is more con- velous of time than of distance.
Bod examplo
She is housemaid at a
hotel
Three hours away" is after all when she meets the man of her more useful formation than cholce; he is a wandering strong three miles" when you have man who inhabits the "cubby" no idea of the type of country out in the yard and is know to be covered.
locally 0% "Fascination", OF The early navigators knew "Tas" for short. how to usC
the sun and the
tu Of course her pride has they could also
resist his eharms at flrat stars, but navigate by sense of smell and (though he looked like a wall by observallon of birds, animals, of iron from head to toe"), und, weather and vegetation.
music,
YOU'RE
*DE A SQUARE if you thinic that because Buddy Bloggs usually makes good records, is latest one can't be bad-and Different
you're a bigger squaro if you buy it on that assumption.
Tale blindfold the DUT let's be honest. A square
purchase of is someone whose opinion disca is just what goes to lower
of difiers from ours. Someone who the standards
recording doesn't find pleasure in the artists, Loyalty is one thing, things we like. In fact, the but unswerving belief that your square is always someone else, hero can do no wrong, is exactly But I've got a few of my own what will cause HIS downfall definitions:
in the end,
This incredible romance is made almost credible by reality of the background. Mr to communi- Nil:ud manages cote his love for even the most ramshackle parts of his native larid, and his zest almost re- deems a story cruder oven than is language and simpler even than the living conditions it describes,
Richard Lister
-(London Express Service).
YOU'RE A SQUARE if you go out and buy a record because everybody else in buying it. Or because you see it's among the best-sellers.
CRIME SHELF by Philip
Oakes
YOU'RE A SQUARE if you Imagine that just because you'vo heard or read a lot about Buddy Bloggs lately, he deserves all tho
his fuss. That is just what publicity agent wents. It's usually him, not Buddy, who's been working overtime.
And it's only, an easily-fooled public which make it, worth- while,
"I replied instantly in a calm, camest and emphatic manner, so that, although a little dear he did not lose a word'.
Your Royal Highness is right. We think it a violation of that com-
You YOU'RE A SQUARE 1! switch off what you don't under- mandment which bids us to keep
stand-whether it's a symphony, holy the Sabbath Day, and we
jazz, or Indian folk music- also think it is setting a
● DIE LITTLE GOOSE. By without giving it an ear. example to our dependants who
uf course, she has to surrender DEATH MAKES A OLAIM.
12. David Alexander. Boardman. YOU'RE A SQUARE if you cannot so well discern between The book is full of fascinating the end (for "he had black By Hank Hobson. Cassell.
of natural lore: nippets right and wrong.'
10s. 6d. Who killed the crippled judge a person by his looks. Why curly hair like Jack Dempsey's, 5d. Private eye Brad Ford takes
when three dancer in the middle of a Man-clothes, or occupation. His Royal Highness remained,we tend to walk in circles
tongied eyelashes, a broken nose to the TV jungle, of "no visibility";
heatwave? Broadway Cartoonist Gerard Hoffnung, silent for several minutes and conditions
Well- editor Bart Hardin fights sured-lose their voices, how, when walking across wind, and a pair of remarkable eyes. top performers all highly-hattan there was no card-playing at
to for example, whose dress would tailored plot and lashings of clear an old-time actor of the possibly cause amusement in a Lambton Castle that Sunday We constantly veer away from They were different colours").
its source: how strong sunlight COMPLICATION strictly synthelle sex. But Mr crime. Fast, and fairly tough, jazz club, would understand evening.
sense of direction,
Hebron should watch his details; with some sentimental padding the musle he heard there, better Mrs Stevenson enjoyed what can alter
03 But nothing runs smooth In the death of a But the chapler I found
famous round a lightweight plot.
than Iols of the fans would she
of England the interesting as any was Finding this tough lond of fly-blown variety. ngent would not glitter, the splendour, the sense Your Way In Towns. For years shocks and arid spaces, not even be tucked away in "a three-inc
Doubles
• SUSPICIOUS CIRCUM- was a chill December evening. In a small room in of tradition.
She even became I have carried a small compass true love. While Fes is away snippet in the Dally Express."
STANCES, By Patrick Quentin. | JOHN NEVILLE, the Shake- It was a chin
used to the refined accents
on the dashboard of my old taming scene
money for the
Gollane. 12. dö. Gloria Swan- spearian actor, is mad keen the English nobility.
Bentley, for finding my way out wedding. one of his ex-girls THE FIRE TRAP. By Owen son should buy the rights of abouť jazz.. Jack Brymer, clari- front of a box-like microphone.
From her pleasure came these of strange clites. knew, but turns up and convinces Barble Cameron. Hammond and Ham- this one. All about, an inde- net professor at the Royal All day the engineers had worked in the room, laying letters, evoking a scene that is never thought of using the facts, (all too simply) that she's carry-mond. 108. ed. Murder and arson structible screen stor whose Academy of Music, loves it top-
even stranger for us than it was that churches have an Easting one of Fas's Joeys (a baby to tu a snowy backwoods getting rivals meet up with cables and testing, testing, testing.
sudden and can play it as well as lots. for the moralising wife of the West axis, that isolated houses you).
Detection by a plodding deputy death. Backstage stuff in Lof Jazzmen. American Minister,
usually face South, that Lele-
As shocked as any Dickens sheriff with family troubles and Vegas, Cannes and London.
Lastly, YOU'RE A SQUARE deal of suspense The title of the book is mis-vision acrinis normally pokat the
and if you think that most other leading, Mrs Stevenson was not way to the transmitting station. eroine, Barbie clears out with stili-smouldering lust for an old good
Lut leaving so much as a note childhood fame. Slightly jersey genuine wit, and best of all, a people are squares, on intimate terms with Victoria
of A but well full-length portrait development,
be- If you've been really honest. ERIC WILLIAMS sud Ands herself a better man. plot
you'll have tumbled to It-we're or the Prince Consort.
Joe McAva is true and straight above average characterisation, witching egomaniac.
ALL squares (some of the time). -(London Express Service).
and strong and marries her and and sound, sober writing.
-in the making-
The man's face and worried. But
drawn Wag
there was
only one task left: to speak to the people who were no longer his subjects and tell them why ho had deelded he could no longer be their klag.
Around their radio sets the people of Britain waited,
Lord Reith, then Sir Reith, director-general of the
"Thir B.B.C.,
announced: Windsor Castle. His Royal High- ness Prince Edward...."
There was
momentary had pause, then the man who been Edward VIII began his Abdication speech. Que radio's most dramatic and touching momcrits had begun.
The Abdication speech might have been lost but for the
John
is
of
Brt
of recording.
IL
now on sale in Britain C11 a long-playing record called The Sounds of Time (Oriole, MC20021A), on astonishing and moving history in sound of the 15 years from 1934 to 1940.
castle all on in
Time
The Sounds of
is record that will bring tears and laughter as it rouses memories, i likely to stand against all competition as the record of the year.
-(London Express Service).
VIGNETTES OF LIFE
"DONY YOU THINK I SHOULD PIA YOUR
NAME AND ADDRESS
ON
YOUR
COAT ?TM
London Express Service).
A
:
By Harry Weinert
Expecting The Worst
THE GIRL WHO IS
ALWAYS THINKING SHE HEARD SOMETHING
GIVE.
In 65 excerpts it ranges from H. G. Wella's gruff voice warn- ing that "the word is drifting towards catastropho" to the hymn sung by massed choirs at the last Olymple Games in London,
There is the voice of Neville Chamberlain, describing how he hod asked Hiller to give an undertaking that ho would withdraw his troops from Poland.
Chamberlain goes on: "I have to tell you that no such under- taking has been received, and that, consequently, this country is at war with Germany."
moments
But the dramatic
are not ali of valoes.
At the height of the war
microphone was installed in the
woods of Surrey to catch
sound of a nightingale.
the
The nightingale's song comes through clearly. Then,
faintly
д
in the background, there is dull hum. The hum becomes a roar and the sound of the nightingale la drowned as 1,000 bombers fly over Surrey on their way to Gerraany....
4
There is humour, too. When depended on radio for Britain its entertainment there Wis voice ITMA. The well-loved
is co the of Tommy Handley record.
The disc includes recordings that were not made public until years later. There is Mont- gomery making a private speech -to officers of the Eighth Army' before Alamein. "Here," ha says, "we shall stond and fight." And thiores the voice of Churchill, stirring as he mys "Let us therefore brace acives to our duty"; triumphant as he says "This is your victory, the victory of the causa of freedom in overgland.”
our
THE PROMISE-YOU'LL-GET-
HOME-EARLY WIFE.
THE WEATHER
FORECAST
SAYS FAIR AND MILD/
I GOT MY REPORT CARD/
BE PREPARED.
WHAT?
BEFORE THE CURTAIN RISES
ON THE SCHOOL: PLAG THE DRAMATIC COACH FORTIFIES HIMSELF WITH TRANQUILIZERS
AND A BUS TICKET TO PARTS UNKNOWN.
MISSIVE FROM THE
TAX OFFICE.
"WAIT 'TIL I SIT
DOWA!
"I'LL BET
IT'S THE
BIG
TUBE/
2-2
COPLE BY BONERAL, PRATIILES
CORE. TWOMAN LIGHTA RESERVIN
GO AHEAD
OPEN
AT!
や
"EVERY TIME: THE *TV. PICTURE FLIPS,
SO DOES POP.
BEING LOOKED OVER BY THE GIRLS FAMILY WHO ASSUME A LOOK-WHAT- THE-CAT-DRAGGED-IA. ATTITUDE.