Page: 14
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1958.
Love In A Life Of Lavender... 1 Yawn A Little
I WORRY sometimes
about English litera- ture.
I would hate it to be a dead thing, lectured over in hushed voices and darkened rooms, but until the late ex- of successful plosion
bed-sitting-room writers, that is what was happening to it.
Now, slightly damayed by stich vulgarity, the old guard have withdrawn,
in
The young rogue writers zurge The foreground, but the ancient regime, clinging to their sweet, old-fashioned beliefs that Art legger than life, and style is all (even in love affairs) ore belind
walls. their stately Occasionally they peep over the top.
Taste
Now if anyone is a member of this regiment of laste it is Lady David Cecil, She is a daughter of Sir Desmond MacCarthy ( "crfile 50 distinguished that everyone at algha when his name is mentioned) and Mary MacCarthy (outhor of "Nine- teenth Century Childhood").
THE NEW BOOKS
by NANCY
SPAIN
She said she planned not toj read any newspaper reviews. Then there was a deep, long,
the mers on the piano.
she
"Those are my son's," nakd. "My Husband has his undergraduates in his study."
The music annds? ""Those are mine," she said,
VIOLENCE IN THE BIG CITY
By WALTER ALLEN
THE FINAL GAMBLE
THAT FAILED von Rundstedt: "The Hitler plan was nonsensical
by MILTON SHULMAN
THE SKINNER, By Jay GH-| THE BATTLE OF THE ARDENNES, By Robert E. Merriam,
bert. Now Authors. 151.
Souvenir Press. 21.
.
THREE JOURNEYS ON THE THAMES
By RICHARD. CHURCH' LONDON'S RIVERSIDE. By Eric de Mare. Reinhardt,
30.
of this book is an architect, a
Tjournalist and a photographer. So he is well qualifled to make his triple journey down the Thames from Battersea to Woolwich.
described on the jacket Two antare of exuber 10, 1944, muttle its' Inst, 10 a fanfare of exultant orders of the day, the lacid silence, ka I asked about JAY GILBERT is
The first Journey is in the from the foyer of the Festival of her novel ag "Now Au-despairing lunge for victory in the West. The effort was past, and on his way he gives Hall).
Though there is a richness of thor No. 1: The Skinner doomed to failure from the start and the resultant battles a history of the two bank-
shes, from sedge and swamp detail in this section, it is inqvit- is the first book to bear the probably shortened the war by many months.
days, through the various civili- able that some omissions are, to inprint of New Authors,
Mr de Mare, does not,, Tor Limited. It i a melo- Mr Merriam has written statement that they were expectations of Celt, Rome, Middle be noted.
Ages, the Golden Elizabethan, intensely a detailed, rather flushed, ing us to attack.
The Germen blow was recely- the Restoration, the eighteenth examplo, mention the two Dutch familiar ed with incredulous surprise for and nineteenth centuries. This sel-boats which have mooring So then I asked what was her serious, annd finally uncon-account of this
rights off Custom House "Quay, journey is full of stories, shades vincing,
battlo that adds remark the first four days.
so long as the mooring is hever of folk dancing and they nonny
to what ably little
despair, Chats, ignorance,
loft vacant. This has lasted since for the British Council and the
rumours and panic the farmillar
the time of William and Mary! Third Programine, and life all city. Liz Buckley, a teen-age already know.
bedfellows of defeat-gripped
He reminds us that Cleopatra's the American defenders. is good in it, like Proust and wrapped up in lavender, Rachel giri, goes to Skinner Street in Jane Austen, had hopelessly inbred upon itself, somewhere
in a cork-lined roomn where there was no fresh pir to keep R going. It was he though, as a story, Il existed on memories of days
wet was lure and men were inen, yel no rude fellow dared cak out plainly about it all, fel alone print it in the news- papers.
So I went to talk to Rachel Cecil in her nice red brick villa Oxford, The thundery exhausted weather added to my
The house was in feelings. backwater of deadened streets, und I waited in a drawing-room
that was really an elegant light- weight library.
The shelves were white and there, cure enough, was the whole of Proust and the whole et Jane Austen.
Music
Instrument....and oh,
Cecil answered, "The recorder."
Slave girl
You could not have a bigger contrast thor of HOLD
SOLD FOR Lim, author
(Collins, 10.). A BILVER spirited Chinese girl, Miss Lim, was sold at the age of eight to on old gentleman who wanted her as slave and concubine.
Janet did the housework beaten bleck was often
she kept her honour She
Irved. She
04 1
When
blue, but Inteci. trøined
wes
nurse.
and and
Singapore fell she escaped in a ship that was hideously bembed.
adrift ca a raft She
drama, lurid,
It is set
1 B anonymous
run
the heart of the stuma to look fo 14-year-old Ron, the wait to whom she has played little mother and who Mas away to avold the pollee.
When found, he repudiates her, but a friend of his, a young tough named Seattle, falls reluc- tantly in love with her.
and
His refuge When she discovero Scotte belongs to a gang of heroin- pediars she gives him up sines into an alcoholic epathy.
Months pass. Love for LI and a sudden realisation of the miserica the drug addict's le
Use Scottle to break away from the gang. He takes reluge in Liz's flat. where the gang besieges him.
The shock
2
we
Probably it chief dis- tinction. from British standpoint is the fact that it vigorously defends Mont gomery's strategieal hand- ling of the battle in the northern salient of tha, Ardennes.
When the Germans broke into the Ardennes-Elfel sector with 17 divisions on the first day and followed this up quickly with another 12 divisions, Allied com- manders were staggered by their own ignorance.
A privilege
Old London Bridge, with is Needle "has nothing to do with It was at this moment, with
co-superstructure of houses and the Egyptian Queen, but was the imperative need to
D pair of ordinate all Allied forces against shops, lasted for 600 years. To originally one of
obelisks erected at Heliopolis, of those pontine about 1458 BC by Thethmes 11 a German break-through across live in one the Meuce, that Eisenhower spilt dwellings was a privilege, be in front of a temple to the sun."
giving cause its street was compara- his command in two,
The third journey in the Montgomery the northern sector tively clean, all soll and rubbish and Bradley the southern, from the houses being thrown, future. This is more hopeful Some American historiens 10 in a stinking midden in the than real, but it is backed by Fictures, the first being an have never forgiven Eisenhower street, as elsewhere in the town, imaginary reconstruction of the but down trapdoors into the Fool of London by one George, for this decision.
Not only was it an affront to river."
Water could be pulled up in Dance in 1800, with two bridges national pride, but Montgomery
flanking great crescents, north WAD
criticised for buckets straight from the river seriously
and south of the river and-with fishing lines could. ba
The Monument conspicuous, - suspended from the windows. advocating certain facileal with ond
The other picture is a sketch drawals and for his tardiness in
Mr de Mare's second journey
and launching a counter-offensive,
is in the present, showing us the from the recent Holden
Holford post-war reconstruction bank-sides as they are in all pion. It shows a riverside walkt their confusion, lack of plan below Upper Thames Street ning, waste, and not infrequent secured by setting back word- moments of grandeur and pootle beauty (such as the scene from tungerford Bridge, or evening
The supplies
After the break-through in
Mr Merriam convincingly Normandy and the bout through demonstrates that any other
optimism Was the
course could have led to military ATL Allied
suicide.
Battered, 21. but not
Ron kills the elnister gang- his helpless, Janet aurvived lite leader, Finn, to prevent
killing Scottle, and is then him- France, BYES Interred by the Japanese. More pelt killed in a road accident. prevailing emotion Atacks on der hocour. She
Scottle, blaming himself for his circles. still murvived.
friend's death, is persuaded by Liz from killing himself in turn, It is the old story: The re- demption of a bad man by a good woman's love, but told in such a way as to read like un espresso-bur dream of violence based on jumbled recollections of gangster films and stories.
She has just written her Arst
She took up nursing again, novel, THEREBA'R CHOICE Incongruously, the plane was She is now the matron of the (Constable, 18s.). which is untidy, There lay a banjolete, a highly crganised St Andrew's getting awed
reviews
transcription from plano
of a jazz Hospital in Singapore. everyone this week." She is also classic, папу long playing Junet Lim's is a sety which married to the Professor of gramophone records. Near by is ineplational, Even hed the English Literature at Oxford, were two music stands, with written i badly it would stil
music. He is a lord.
have given courage to ordinary mon and women all over the "Theresa's Cholce" is
world, but
Junct Lim tes tule. anacmic
Theresa
writton it very well, in a down- Three men: Iver courled by
factual, unfanciful Brando an artist with heavy eyes who sweeps her off to Paris and there "Icfs her down".... iterature. an already-married bourgeois
An In
Rachel
is Cecil
fortylsh, pretty, kind, and charming, hy yet sure of herself. She took a to-corth, deep interest in anything one way. cured talk about. Particularly
Yes, her husband had helped
We drank tea (Ent) Grey's,
Big stuff
doctor called Colin, who plays her a fot with her book, Yes, lawn tennin....and Edward. she had enjoyed writing it. It is big stuff, "Sold for Edward is "like 'n fragile intel. Yes, she had been at it a long, Sliver." It shows that good order lectual bird," with "long Angers long time.
enn often come out of evil chaos. nervously tapping a cigarette,"
Above all, it is a story which Edward is awfully like Lord Mixture), she put the milk in is very easy to read. That. David Cecil. Theresa marries
We ate very, very thin frankly, is what English litera Edward.
brown bread and butter, and ture is all about. I am sorry to say this story cakes specially made by a thing that should be read, not
bundies bored me stiff, It was as retainer who was somewhere in tied up into le ghastly good taste. though literature, with all that the kitchen.
Just.
VIGNETTES OF LIFE
'HI THERE !
LOOKS LIKE YOU DISCOVERED THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH 1*
PRAISING A MAN FOR HIS ROBUST HEALTH AND GOOD LOOKS — AO MATTER IF HE'S FALLING APART—
IS ONE WAY TO MAKE A FRIEND.
AS SOON AS
I SAW YOU, I
|SAID – THERE'S
A GIRL WITH
LOOKS
AND
BRAINS!
WINKING JS RISKY- YOU NEVER
KNOW IF YOU'LL WIN A FRIEAD OR A POKE IN THE EYE,
"FLATTERY WILL GET YOU NOWHERE
SHE SAID. PURRING LIKE A JCONTENTED KITTEN.
It is
some-
of
Anonymous
The big-city background is as formalised, dg abstract, as the decor of an advanced ballet abort the slurns,
In the end the characters, who are snarled-up and inarticu late almost to the point of dumbness, are as anonymous and featureless as the ofty. We know no more about Litem than we did at the beginning.
But there is power here, and a genuine attempt to wrestle with Language. When Jay Gilbert tooks at life straight instead of through fins and 1erature sho may well give us something to write home about.
~London Expreza Service).
Inteligence ofters vied with cach other writing wisecracks about the disorganised Wehr- macht and the troops confidently expected a quick end to the war,
The evidence
houses.
-(London Express Service).
Mr. Shute Scores A
Technical Win
by RICHARD LISTER
The truth was that the THE RAINBOW AND THE ROSE, By Noyil Shute.
Knota ot brave American resistance at St Vith and Bastogne upset Hitler's time- table, and widen the weather permitted the Allied air force to
the take part in
battle or December 23, it was only a matter of time before the -Ardennes offensive was recoli-
ing on itself. But Hiller had other plans. From mid September the Fuehrer had been planning this
Germans had neliher the men, counter-offensive through
mozini petrol or the supplies,
superiority to Ardennes which was aimed at
carry out Hitler's ambitious dream, Rundstedt and reaching Antwerp and severing other senior commanders recog- the Allied armies in two.
There was no lack of evidence need the Impossibility of their
task before it had begun, about this German plan available
"It was a nonsensical opera to Allied intelligence. convinced were they of its tion," von Rundstedt once told nic, "and although It is some- atrategical impracticability that times called The Rundstedt they consistently reasoned them- offensive I had nothing to do
the obvious, selves out
Indeed, when two prisoners with it. It came to me as an
order complete in every detail. December of-war reported on
The final epitaph of this 14 that the Germans were pre- battle comes from Goering. It
attack, Intelligence paring an
was no longer 1940," said he, in it was an assumed translation and reprinted it as a
(London Express Service).
Making Friends
SOME MEN USE A CAMERA TO ENDEAR THEMSELVES TO NEW ACQUAINTANCES —
SOMETIMES IT WORKS — SOMETIMES IT DOESN'T.
COME HAT BENOGAL MATURIS COK. 114 WORLD NOHTS RESERYSEA
DON'T CORRECT
PEOPLE ——
IF THEY SAY 'I DONE IT
YOU CAN BE SOCIABLE AND SAY 'I SEEN IT,
But so
CITor
Holnemann, 161.
all the plain, straightforward story-tellers, Mr.
10 Novi Shut
talnest and most straight
forward. His characters are simple men of action, wholly uncomplicated, nice, grown-up, schoolboys with the code of behaviour of nice schoolboys. His women, I sometimes: think, are nice grown-up schoolboys, too,
But what Mr Shute does small aircraft. Johnny Pasobe, understand 1 the world of who retked from the coptalnicy: action, its difficulties and techni- of an Australian air-Be at to, calities and the satisfaction of is, when we first hear of him, lying with a fractured skull in an mastering them.
inaccessible part of Tasmania,
He learned his flying in the. 1914-18 war.
The world of The Rainbow and the Rose is the world at
By Harry Weinert
LEARN TO LISTEN ----- |YOU DON'T HAVE TO
TELL A MAN HIS VIEWS ARE COCKEYED UNTIL HE'S
FINISHED TALKING,
"I LOVE IT! IT'S ADORABLE /
COMPLIMENTING A GIRL ABOUT HER.
DRESS ALWAYS DOES THE TRICK-
EVEN IF IT IS.
A MESS. T
"WHO'S THE
"HE'S MY HUSBAND.
FUNNY
LOOKING
MAN?
BUDDING
FRIENDSHIP
NIPPED
BY A HEAVY FROST.
Johnny survived a German prison camp, but his marriage. did not. It had been to a musical. comody soubretia who desertad. him for Hollywood.
1.
His next, and lass but one love, was Brenda Marshall..
Her husband is a montal-éatri This produces terrible COOL plication for these simple. hearted people. Brenda's hụ band is always in danger of guti ting better, and needi hez, and they must not do anything "amutty." But evidently, they do one night at an Aero rally, In France, for the result D. A daughter, Divorce is impossible and Brenda deliberately crashes. her Moth. She dies.
FIRST LOVE
Johnny turns his backligh
| England and devotes himself to his first love, flying, -"wenty- Ave years later his wheel turns. fun circle. The chief nir hissignaɛ of his line makes a devastating w impression on him and he finds himself falling in love (in the nicest possibla . way) with dila own illegitimate daughter wars bat So successfully does Mr Shirte wrap up this yam in 'n covering“ of realistic technical detail that we hardly notice ita naivety. It' may be a very simple tale, But" it is very skifully put over, und
FICTION SHELF
By JOHN WATERMAN
DISCOURSE WITH SHADOWS. By J. E, Malcolm, Golianos, I3s, sà, Tho' bombed- out ruins of post-war Frankfurt, and four survivors of,iki Nazi concentration camp are joined by Franz Grunwald who has been in England since 193ZIL becomes involved with their past t In an act of revenge which jende ? to a cibinax of terror with magne
mare msm and convinômes, M
A moving
novel· authentic
with
KIT !
backgrounds
narrative" worked in a counter. point of suspenas.g
● DETWEEN THE PARTIES, By, Holan Foley :: Hodder: Bod": Bloughton, XX4, 64, An old lover arale. is unhappily: rompected, ( against a cozy landscape of life. with the Brittdi-Army of!DO? cupation in Austriata) celopola.. Indies, dignited but impoveris ed Austriad "aristocracy? LIBIOS" and back-biting: A well-writer sort of Colonel Dale M. diaLTS
1