DAB and FLOUNDER by WALTER
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,
SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1949.
GEORGE MALColm thompsON finds a lively novel about rural England
The Man Who Defied
The
By
Ministry
In their own1
Kenerals, captive in Edmund Crispin draws charac British bands, talk- ters rather well. He is a civilised ing freely and pre- and witty practitioner of detec- fessionally 10 ation who, in my view, is wasted British military on this stony field. His gift for writer, whose in- satirical comedy, demonstrated in hla account of the Sanford elec- sitht they respect.
But a strange, Illuminating tion and Captain Watkyn, the fact emerging from their con- election agent, could be put to fessions is that some of the most better uze, fascinating problems have no
answer.
fn.
the
tortuous
to But if you really want Or if one exists it is
Mrs Lambert know who killed and Detective-Inspector fussy, Crispin will tell you, In his own elegant way.
nix way, the THE BLUE FIELD.
John Moore, Collins. 12. Frolick Virgins, Innd ris, are In revolt, though what they are 6d. 222 pages.
In revolt against might be hard THE Jue field is the to define in respectable print.
The mad Lord Orris is at war locked up banner of defiance
with the spirit of possessiveness psychology of one man. waving
rural and
has gained glorious
his own
For instance, why did Hitler England. It blows, there victory by achieving
not destroy the British at Dun- kirk? The reasons he gives are quite unconvincing,
over
#
on the billside overlooking bankruptcy.
Pistol, Bardolph and Nym,
Brensham, as the gay, out rageaus symbol of William Hart's rebellion against the "War Ag."
☆
On
to
But, of course, very much more is at stake than one anarchie farmer's war against Authority. The
when Hart who,
he gets whole of this countryside is
drunk rascally
stunnem nothing more nor less than (stront; cider) boasts, Thee a vast conspiracy against caren't the trend towards n
more descended closely and centrally order- Shakespeare," ed society in England.
FROM HERE AND THERE:
TV Taverns Turn
Patrons TT·
NEW YORK:
Barc
In New American York are beginning to throw out Newark.
in
touch I.
from
claim which. carved on his lombstone.
A
INTELLIGIBLE
HERAL
DRY. By Sir Christopher and Adrian Lynch-Robin- (Macdonald, 18.)
son.
2
205 pages.
insist that their THOSE who
heraldry should be intel- ligible neeil look no further. They will read, and understand, the blasting sentente, "Women have no cadency."
which
BAITORS PRESS GRAVICE.
THE SATURDAY EYENING PORI
/147
Drucker
Waugh Wears An American Shroud
who used to be ragged privates In the battle against order;
thanks now.
their Why did ho attacks Russia? have untiring efforts in the Black He lied to his generals about It,
themselves Market, raised
that it was to telling them the rank of captain.
necessary, preventive war.
Why. If it comes to that, dhe BUT the arch-rebel is William he attack Stalingrad, which he have captured in could enally the beginning?
Anybody looking for evidence for I be
part played by the poet of the minor
human affairs as
Relenting somewhat from this in due course, is only to look inside these covers. severity, the authors go on to un apocryphleal reason in
But, of course, Hiller was a explain that "bastardy is a
of differencing
"THE LOVED ONE," a job at the Happier Hunting matter
Ground, a luxurious oemetery Not so, in the originated in early days when military idlot?
by Evelyn Waugh. Liddell
for Hart, who bastards of good social stand-
the animal pels of the opinion of
much very
more (Chapman and
wealthy, thinks that he was too brilliant. Ing were
Hall, 78. 6d.)
The numerous than they are now."
sentimental Idiocy of He had the flair of genius, with a lability to make elementary
the Happier Hunting Ground is mistakes.
the foreword
Chic!
TVELYN WAUGH's al- a preparation for the nauseating Herald of Ireland says it takes ready notorious novel, futulty of Whispering Clades, a
make 11
"The Lovell One," will morticians' paradise. BURIED FOR PLEASURE. three generations to
gentleman. The generations of
At Whispering Gindes the with By Edmund
stand comparison Crispin. what, one would like to know.
human corpse is tactfully re- Swift's satirical master-ferred to as the Loved One. Here 6d. 191 Gollancz. 8s.
it is "model- piece, "A Modest Proposal," after embalming,
led" and "cosmeticised pages.
real-life into n
attitude for the final cerer
ceremony of leave-taking reclining on a chaise-longue, it it was that sort of female; arm-chaired with n elfor in its mouth, if it was that sort of male.
William has been a drunkard, singer of improper songs, fighter, and the husband of gipsy girl. Flamboyantly ignor ing oil conventions, he comes at last against the "War Ag."
They tell him to plough Little Twitlocks; he refuses. They order him to grow potatoes; he plants sunflowers. At last they issue a bull declaring that
shall grow a crop of oats.
he
And, one beautiful day in steel foundry The
hooter July, all Brensham stares at n Junch AI
his seven-acre feki which is suclen- put down the television sets they installed sounded.
elar from y transformed into a Ingoon of Reasons harmer, took a fat to lure customers.
it in his Mediterranean blue, calculated many drinkers værfer a quiet his pocket and put
Now I've seen every-to gladken the hearts of men but atmosphere; customers buy few mouth.
menus!-to Travis, "and not-not by drinks while the show is on: thing," said
television are bet you've got a car, too," "Yes, appease the spirit of the "War fayems without
belter because they sir." said Al, and loper of to Ag." doing
Wrongfully
and
heretically, attract fugitives from television his lunch.
William has sown linseed, at home.
Sold Out
JOHANNESBURG: · George Honeyhull has just died here a
Painless Extraction FLORENCE: Aldo Marchesini, the age of 96, i poor man. I
of Moderia, and his family woke 1880-
from a 24-hour sleep
up
le over
£300
*
any
FEN travels PROFESSON
down to Sanford Angelorum
as Independent can- to stand didate in the most apathetic by- election that ever diagraced the political genius of Britain. Down in Sanford he meets murkable number of pretty girls of murder and
couple mysteries.
J-
In
+
THE BISMARCK
EPI
SODE. By Captain Rus- set Grenfell, RN. Faber and Faber. 12s. 6d. 219
pages.
ان
Swift, you remember, proposed that the year- old children of the poor purchasable should be for the tables of persons i of
quality, an American having assured him that bables,
roastedt, baked, fried,
or bolled, maka delicious food.
To the extent that
disgusting.
BOOK OF the DAY by DANIEL GEORGE
In the course of the funereal Swift's festivilles Dennis (a character
the pursuit HIS account THIS
and killing of the German battleship Bismarck is one of the most brilliantly told, one of the most enthralling adventure nar-satire was
it was after Me Waugh's own ort) falls emerge frohi the effective in ita day. Whether in some sort of love with Almee turned out of farm and It is one of the discouraging railves to
Evelyn Waugh's theme HE is notified that he will be
Is Thanatogenos, chief cosmetician discovered
the home (with Pru, his daughter, features of detective fletion that smoke of war.
thought more one Witwatersrand Main gold reef, and her unfathered brood). Good one must never become attacked
or less shocking at Whispering Gindes. His rival Captain Grenfell manages his than Swift's and his satirical in- is Mr Joyboy chief embalmer.
Almec, forn between the two, men rally to save him, mobilis- to a character. For X, of whom night recently to find they had but sold his claim for
sinced produce:
on page 25, is nccount of a complex operation tention higher or lower will de- ing the local Socialist MP. But one grew fond
She thus, In been robbed of half-a-million The reef has
One in-pend upon his readers' concern poisons herself. £2,000,000,000 worth of when Willam assaults an offeer coldly and heartlessly dismissed with immense skill.
morticians, and the the furgon of the found the with the Old World "X's stiffening velerate landsman of the Ministry, a crime almost on page 84 as
World and the becomes a Loved One. And unfortunately, book as exciting as any novel. equivalent to parricide, matters body."
of this narrative take a
The climax a graver turn.
readers is either, uproariously funny-or In
hia A gusty, humorous portrait of
short, will reglon strong-rooted
face refined fun about corpses it is not, according to your tem- England which grows the best
and tolerate the idea of Death perament. I can only say that brussels sprouts and still thinks
itself treated with the levity no one but Evelyn Waugh could of Shakespear us a local boy.
have been trusted with such a customarily reserved for Sex?
subject.
Perhaps
night. Far-Flung Family
had
the
1
ilre worth of money and jewels, They had
10 ber at 10 gold, Hone o'clock on the previous As they slept thieves
DURBAN: Mrs Kathleen Mon- tube down inserted
Greene, ot Brighton, bedroom and tague chimney of the
with some Sussex, aged 72, has arrived in room sprayed the
the Dominion sort of asphyxlating gas. While South Africa in
thieves Monarch, completing a journey the family slept worked over the house at their, of 45,000 miles round the world seeing her sons and daughters leisure.
in almost every Domlulon. She
the
Success Story visited Canada, tho United
WASHINGTON: Ben Travis, States.
Australia
say
of
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE HILL By B. H. Liddell Hart. Cassell, 10s. 6d. 320 pages.
And the TN this book you
answer to some puzzies of the war. Here are the German
New and the greater a steel moulder from Shemeld. Zealand, and
Al portion of her 20 children, 23 Negro stood, alongside
three great- Brown as the sparks flew from grandchildren mu his chipping hammer at nn grandchildren.
SHEEL IBER AR Y LISTA
Charles King of England. King Charles and King Pym. 2 vol. Holis By Esme Wingfeld-Stratford.
18. each. 351 and and Carter, 294 paces. For Mr. Wingfeld- Straind the Civil War is still History written by one raving who does not doubt where the right is to be found, and is not oppresset! by the suspicion that there may be some on either site.
Fatir Countries. By Plomer, Capt. 101. Gd.
William 19 pages.
short stories This selection of
the impressively demonstrates breadth and mastery of this writer's Talent ile can be brilliantly comic: he can, os in the story called The Child of Queen Victoria. be mest moving.
The Jungle 14 Nentral. By F. S. and Chatio Chapman, D.3.0. Windus. 18s. 436 pages. Not just Another book about the Far East War, but en outstanding book telling of an sulatanding adventure.
VIGNETTES OF LIFE
"DID-YOU- HURT YOURSELF
_AND_NOW_YOU_HAVE A CHANCE TO WIN THE HOUSE AND
TWENTY THOUSAND DOLLARS CASH: IS THAT ALL RIGHT WITH
YOU FOLKS ?"
Now and This Next.
.
a too;
word
of
Hollywood is the scene of this To Hollywood macabre farce. has been enticed an improbable caution will not be out of place. young English poet, Dennis Its brilliant surface is deceptive. Barlow. Falling in his assign- It will let you down. It will let ment (he was to concoct the life you down to depths you have of Shelley for a film), he takes been afraid to plumb.
STAMP NOTES
THE
aily
PHE description of the 3-cent Washington and Leo Univer- stamp commemorative which goes on sale on April 12 at Lexington, Virginia, has just been released.
The stamp is blus and is pr ranged horizontally with a singie Uned border. The con- trol design is a view of the university. To the left and right aro portraits of Gens. Washington und Leo in oval their names in frames, with
Goihla In narrow white curved panels. ARGENTINA has released-an-
other commemorative the "Reunion of Pan American Cartographers." The stamp is a 45 centavos air mail which depicts Atlas shouldering the world,
for
PANISH Morocco has issued a rew series of ale mall stamps which has eight stamps in the set. The designs show various views of Morocco with planes in fight overhead. The from 10 volucs will range centimes to 0 pesetas.
The colours have not yet been announced. TTUNGARY has issued a com-
memorative stamp in ob- servance of "Stamp Day." It represents the globe girdled by n ribbon with the inscrip- tion: "Belyegnap 1940" and in in flight front is a pigeon holding a letter in its beak.
The stamp also bears the conte of-arms of the Centenary of the 1848 Hungarian War for Liberty.
The colour is blue and the face value
Allers ia 30 although 1 forint is the extra charge for the entrance-fee. CPAIN honoured Hippocrates, the "Father of Medicine,"
with î set of four anti- tuberculosis stamps. The de olive brown, 10c green postal tax and a 50 plus 10c brown- semi-postal all bear the head The 25c bluc Hippocrates. ls an airmail stamp whose de- sign shows a plane flying over
of
1년
a sanatorium. All four stamps have the red cross of Lorraino in a corner. DELGIUM recently re-issued the 1947 set of six stamps honouring its industries. The designs, with the exception of one, remain the same but the values and colours have been new values changed. The
aret 1.20 franc brown, chemical factory: 1.781. green, woman doing home arta: 31 magenta, communications in- blue, textila dustries; 41 machine;
bluo
green, Iron manufacturing factory. 2.50 frane red-brown with. a honours agriculture central figure, of various fruits and is the only new design in the group.
The
"Foolish Questions'
BY KEMP STARRETT.
'IS IT "TENDER?"
IS THERE SOMETHING
THE MATTER WITH IT?"
CLANK
"TIRED="
Ledger Syndicats
"WILL IT HURT ?*
HAVE
YOU BEEN DRINKING
సా
'DUJA MAVE AN ACCIDENTS
JIYA, FRED.
MAKIN SOMETHIN
130.