A HEAD FOR DRINK
DAB and FLOUNDER
-by Walter
Comet For
AT
Christmas
T Christmastide in 1758 a comet blazed its fiery way across the heavens, fulfilling a prediction made 16 years earlier by Edmund Halley that the comet of 1622 would return to earth again on Christmas Day of that year.
Edmund Holley was the son of a rich soap manufacturer in the City of London. Throughout his brilli-
ant schooldays at the famous Lon don school of St Paul's he studied astronomy ardently; and when he entored Queen's College, Oxford University, he took with hin .among other apparatus, 24-ft. telescope through which ho was able to observe the heavens.
J
Before he was twenty, Halley had written and sent to Britain's Royal Society a "direct and geographical method of determining the elements of the orbits of the planets."
He becamo a friend of 'Isaac Nowton, and was instrumental in getting the great "Principia" Published. Ho explored the Atlantic Ocean from shore 10 shore, and drow up a chart of the variation of the compass. He made a survey of the tides and coasts of the English Channel, and in 1713 was appointed Britain's Astronomer Royal.
lod him to be His researches love that the 1622 comet would re- turn, and his name was fittingly bestowed on it when awed watchers saw his prediction come true on Christmas Day, 1758.
____________THE_HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 1948.
WHY NOT GIVE BOOKS?
BOOKS are always lasting and
sonts.
welcome Christmas pro- Here are some new ones reviewed by George Mal- colm Thompson:
AMOS INTOLERABLE: His,
TABLE TALK. Compiled by Richard Mallett. -Cape,
5t...
THE
wise will by no argument be dissuaded from meeting Amos.
This appalling public-house tyrant and bogus wit should be known to a wider circle than the privileged but resentful companions whom he oppresses
Amos is bad-tempered, egotistical and a master of the carefully, pre- pared joke which falls completely Cat. But sometimes D good thing ercapes him and explains the odd fascination ho exoris DVOC cronics.
his
His description of an Indignant lody will not soon be forgotten: "Sho rose with the majestic, allent, pale, Inexerable speed of boiling milk."
And there will always, surely, be admirers of his remark about one London district--"where there are to many policemen that the burglars walk about in pairs."
The probable attitude of the pub- lle to Amos is well summed up by one of his friends. "One's heart goes out to him... gingerly."
DARK WANTON. By Peter Cheyney. Collins. 8s. Gd. 192 pages. TIERNAN knew that the leader
of a ten-piece rumba band en- joys an unfair advantage with wo men. Particularly when there is a suggestion of Icopard or puma in his walk and the way he put his feet on the ground" (which seems to amount to much the same thing).
THERE IS NO ARMOUR. By Howard Spring Collins, 12s. Od. 576 pages, 20
SUGGESTIONS
FOR THE KIDDIES
CHILDREN, from toddlers to teen- agers, havo their whims and fancies about books and authors, but they all like plenty of colour, plenty of fun. and plenty of action.
Do not believe for one moment
that Ted Pentecost, RA, ever The books available this year painted a good picture. He waits again" fulfil those requirements. As three-quarters of an hour outside usual the enchantment spinner-in- a shop on a great-aunt who desplies chief will probably be Enid Blyton, him. That kind finds its true lovel whose output is remarkable.
In colouring Christmas cards,
But those in search of presenta
For that matter, I do not believe will not go for wrong with authors in Pentecost Senior's sudden con- like David Severn, Rodney Bennett, version from a gay, intelligent hu- Allson Uttley, Capt W. E. Johns, man being
Leyland, into a tract-pushing Arthur Ransome, Eric Plymouth Brother.
Monica Edwards, Beverly Nichola and Malcolm Saville.
Those caveats entered. There is No Armour is a nostalgic, sympathe
inventive novel of the, profusely Lancashire and Cornwall. It flown sluggishly. By page 220 the artist- hero is only 18 years old. Adoles-
does not
Во loot
long
cence nowadays.
►
But if Spring is leisurely, ha technique is supe.
THE LOVED ONE: By Evelyn Waugh. Chapman and Hall, 78. 6d. 144 pages.
So he beat up Vincente Callao HAVING exclaimed with wonder in the presence of the lovely, armoral and delight over The Loved One Aurora, thus restoring the balance when it appeared in Horizon, whal
is left to say? of power.
Kiernan had another motive for the assault, but this is not revealed until page 130 of a compact and ex- citing story of postwar secret ser- vice work.
nt
In England are two vital Hists of secret agents which somebody wishes to emuggle abroad. This must all costs be prevented. And it is, too. Mainly because nobody dreams
lists in the of putting the
post. Well, can't think of
everything. Less than the accustomed quota of tough conversation and physica!
Wanton. I unkindness in Dark Cheyney going soft on us?
For the very young,
auro there
Severn'o BILL BADGER books (Lane). Enid Blyton's MARY MOUSE series (Brockhampton Press), the BUFFIN BOOKS (Barker) and the LADYBIRD serien ADVEN- of, THE TURES OF WONK (Wills and Hep- worth).
For the more expensively-inclined there are Foulsham's GIDAPPY and DUMPY, outsize animal picture- story books.
And for those boys and girls old enough to look upon a book as a permanent treasure, THE AMAZING PRANKS OF MASTER TILL and
ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WON- DERLAND (Max Parrish) are hand- some gills.
All teen-age boys are thrilled by That it is a satire, smooth and the BIGGLES books (Hodder and Baines Reed (Latimer economical as a polsoned dart from. Stoughton) and the school yarns by a blow-pipe? That it describes, with Talbot loving exactitude, the burial customs House). The giris will enjoy the of California? That it takes no mean PONY books, by Monica Edwards; sidekick at the English colony in MADDY ALONE by Pamela Brown, THE DOLL'S HOUSE, by Rumer Godden. Hollywood.
That it would malte an Irish cen- sor laugh? That Waugh dislikes the human race as much as. Aldous Huxley despairs of it.
and
Finally, there are the illustrated editions of the popular classics from Collin's and Foulsham's: ROBINSON CRUSOE, TREASURE ISLAND LITTLE WOMEN, BLACK BEAUTY
READY, and ⚫ MASTERMAN
And that The Loved One will do very nicely for the Christmas
• stocking of a hard-boiled friend. namo only a few.
VIGNETTES OF LIFE
*WHAT ARE YOU GETTING YOUR WTE FOR GIRISTMAS
Ledger Syndicate
I DUNNO! I WON'T
I KNOW TIL CHRISTMAS
MORNING WHEN WE
OPEN THE
"STUFF!"
AND THE FIRST OF TILE MOUTH HELL GET THE BILL FOR THE "PRESENTSKE "BOUGHT FOR HIM.
MAYBE WE'D
·BETTER UNWRAP 'EM AND START
ALL OVER
"WAY DOUT YOU GET YOURSELF A NEW
SHOVEL YOR CARISTMAS
THERE'LL BE THE UCIAL LOT
OF GENEROUS SVEGESTIONC.
The Ideal
Christmas Present
A RONSON TABLELIGHTER
Delightful and Practical
"Decanter Deluxe"
RONSON
graceful table lighter, heavily silver plated
"Queen Anne"
table and desk lighter in heavy silver plate, exquisitely styled in perled
The "Light" of the Party “Crown Set"
luxurious heavy silver plated table lighter, cigarette um, and tray
At All Leading Tobacconists. And High-Class Stores
Spla Agents:
ED, A KELLER ALEXANDRA BUILDING.
'CO., LTD.
10
"NO COMBOY CUIT AN"
GUNS THAT OL
STUFF ZY
ALL HE WANTS IS A COIPLE OF ROCKET SHIPS AND AN ATOMIC BOMB
* I DON'T KNOW WHY YOU
WORRY ABOUT THE GIFTS LOOKING CHEAP...
EVERYTHING THEY EVER SEND YOU LOOKS AS THOUGH
Σ IT CAME OUT OF A DIME STORE!
*Seven More Shopping Days”
By KEMP STARRETI
| "ARS, GYPSOME IS GETTING AN
EMERALD RING "ANDJANES
GETTING A MINK-COAT..
·AND. I HEARD FRED:
15 GNING GRACE
A NEW CAR...ENT THAT GENEROIS OF.. THEM? I SUPPOSE. THEY MUST MAKE LOTS OF
MONEY TO ∙BE ABLE TO..
ETC."
THAT SNAPPY NEW BREAKFAST FOOD FOR THOUGHT. SERVED UP EVERY MORNING FROM NOW UNTIL CHRISTMAS...AND MAYBE EVEN LONGER.
WAY DO MY FOLKS. ALWAYS HAVE TO
GET THE SECOND-
RATE CARDS OR THE SICCUD
HAND ONES
WELL, YOURE
SHOULD BE PLENTY
THE ONE VIO
SAID 30 CARDS
AFTER THE WRAPPING
QUE PLOP ASTMIGION US
THE SAME OLD CI
TO MAKE FIFTY DO
NO MATTER CARISTMAS CARD SINS GETS THE SECT FRIENDS YOU DIDI
LAST YEARS
CARDI.
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For
MOVIES
-YOU'LL BE PROUD TO SHOW.