THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1950.
New Books by George Malcolm Thomson
The Vivid Letters of a Caustic Lady
JANE WELSH CARLYLE, the scolded him, you mean to aw something
ก new selection of her overthrow the Austrian Empire. of Communinn,
An Eton schoolboy who uttered . letters. Arranged by
such nonsense would be whipped Trudy Bliss. Gollancz, and expelled the community, 21s. 355 pages.
There was Browning to kiss HE Haddington doctor's her and-"considerable
T
that cured her
"There were about 200 men, They were In rage. peasants. Their long, fnir, unkempt hair fell to their shoulders. Their
a legs and feet were encased in of ragged puttees and straw can- daly, Ench man hac a string around hip neck, from which, hung a small rack containing a hunk of bread. They trudged eyes on the ground." along, in absolute siience their
Bult of feathers in spite of his daughter was a descen- cleverness.” And Count d'Orsay, dant of John Knox and resplendent ns
diamond hud inherited (as anybody see by reading these lettera) the literary gift of her great ancestor.
can
dismissed Jane in sometimes as the tedious, hysterical wife who plagued a man of genlus. She is, moeg olten; pitied as the victim of a dyspeptic hus-
band.
It is even alleged by some thot Thomas Carlyle had small aptitude for the marital role. Jano's letters, al their most outspoken lend no credence to ihat story.
be watched
se it blaze
have oul
bettie" in yards of gold chain,
witly with It Shelley's bust, "There is a sort It all-looking at of feces that seem to wish to swallow their chins, this is one. In fact. It would have been all very tolerable had it not been for that plump Vietorlan Circe, Lady Ashburton.
Wealthy, clever, imperious, a grande dame-and Carlyle, the despleer of vanities, became her courtier and victim.
"How do you like her?" asked Rogers, the banker-poet, "tell me honestly in she kind to you-as kind as to your husband?"
Very devilish old man, wrote Jane, but he got no satisfaction out of me.
elous life personality.
A book that brings to viva- a brillant if calle
•
заб
It
Charlotte left the party, made
further dimculties about divorce.
110
CHARLOTTE HALDANE, journalist and authoress was born in Sydenham 55 years ago, Belgium Educated in London,
and the University of Berlin, she hits travelled widely and written five noveis, tico autobia graphics and a play. She has two grandchildren,
POCKET CARTOON -from America
by OSBERT LANCASTER
"You know, the awful thing is can't remember if I'm meant to be at Apartment 7, Gat's Roor, 400. Enst 57th-street at siz, or Apartment 6, 57th Aipor,
400th-street Cast fif
seven "
Our
PRIMA DONNA
was refreshing the other day to hear from New York that the prima donnu can still show a tan, trum.
At the present time she
does not count for as much
A BATON
NEVILLE CARDUS writes about the man who waves the stick
an orchestra conductor in charge.
WITH
with na
he
I have known here and there
מחט
a conductor who firmly believed
B sort of musical obstetrician at every per- formance, that not only the Immortality of the Unfinished Symphony depended on his skill but its very birth and first signs of life.
This is an ago which encour- ages histrionics and the spec- tacular. Too much has been made of the viriuoso conductor and his Fifth Symphony.
None the less, he is an wo And seen, necessary.
to the exceptions
two who really da give us per-
as in the bad old days of In clamant cavalcade he pictures and exhibitionism. But opulence and top-hats; the encircles the world, from Imagine prima donna then ruled the Philadelphia to Harringay, roost--and in 'this context from sunny Spain to darkest No unanimity
hundred the word "roost" is a pretty Manchester,
arrive have Tor
rehearsal on a winter there one. The top-note and the strong (maybe), the flau- E Instrumentalists
tists carrying their own morning, men (and sometimes general rule there are one or tinra!
instruments by hand, but, I women) of all sorts and con
conductor, the orchestra his crate, f.o.b. cutourage.
aro
the public's take it. the double-basses ditions and ages, some eager to formances which carry convic- Nowadays chosen prima donna is the are sent on, in advance, by begin to play, some are for the tion.
moment sick of musle; some aro feeling very well, some feeling like death; some single, some oro in love or pre- rently to be married, some are definitely and revocably mar rled.
Books and person
BYBHORAGERTHOROGO
four notable Elizabeths
Is there luck in a name? with over 100,000 coples sold It would seem so. Four In Senndinavia, translations in
nearly every European lan Elizabeths among our wo gunce, filmed (for showing in novelists Bowen, London when the book ap- men Taylor, Berridge, Goudge pears), are all notable successex.
Friends and fans
This
renss of humanity
are
do nome-
Aro It all depends on what a man
has to give. "One must be body in order raid Goelle. But I doubt if he hind ever seon a conductor-I prima donna incan a modern conductor,
19
E gramophone flends and I tans "collect" their favour-
"Have
you Its conductors. heard Toscanini's Pastoral Sym- phony?" I was asked the other about to go through (for a cer- tainty) the fourth symphony of day by one of these musical rehaikovsky. Scarcely three or philatelista I hadn't the cour- age to tell him that I am old four members of the orchestra fachloved enough to believe that the Pastoral Symphony is Beethoven's first, foremost, and
Jast.
performances
are
na
would agree about the tempo of the first bar,
to
of
He is indeed often the only -person prezent at a rehearsal who has seen the full orchestral score, and has 1 before him, on his desk.
known
If a "Gallup" pall were to What does crergo from thore
be laken within the ranks ex- gay, bad-tempered and vivid
MOTHERING SUNDAY. By
violin from first tending writings, which so slyly expose
even on an The contemporary conductor Noel Streatfeild Collins. the weaknesses of others no 59
triangle, to decide 8s. 6d. 256 pages.
is the cynosure of all eyes on he elementary point of dynamics, surely reveal her own, is that
• Introducing. J. W. Mackall's strides 10 the rostrum and a ray whether this brass chord Jane was a brilliant a writer
Elizabeth Berridge (30, Lon- Life of William Morris, about toparently he plays every nole siiould be so loud or not so loud, as Thoning and may have serie. TRUDY BLISS was born NOEL STREATFEILD has a
proxy. much
as the result would be 30 percent feed the full development of in Belmont Mass, U.S.A. Grew ensunt way with the Engdon born, Welsh on mother's be added to World's Classics, is himself by
Cockerell, Director Mark Twain elimbed the "Yes." 30 percent "No," 40 per her own talent to nursing her up in the Middie West and Call lish language. She is liable to ride, married, lives in Wales), Sir Sydney
Married Arthur Bliss write sentences like this. "It has a new novel. De Clean, Be Jorula.
of the Fitzwilliam Wistelberk Be until 1937
cent "Don't Know," husband's.
1925 and came to England to was not her fault for the had Tidy, coming from the Falcon Museum, Cambridge.
Goudge,
His and Elizabeth Press;
So it is necessary that Fome more of her and
Best possible choice, Cockerell time. tias two daughters, one an tried to see The Great Man must
Dolphin Country was Morris's secretary, intimate athletle as they are sthetic: one Individual should come for- actress, the other a ballet dancer. had suggested that Virginia whose Green, sympathy ns he growled
most renowned of word modestly and shyly, should come to stay since she won the Louis B. Mayer £30,- of the Pre-Raphaelites; seere one of the his despair over the progress of
and Helen were the same age." 000 prize two years ago, has lary, also, to Wilfred Scawen London's conductors exhibits at course, at first, to provide a the current masterpiece. The
and her latest, Gentlan Hill, Blunt and Thomas Hardy. To every appearance, especially in musical point of focus. neighbouring plano must 1:0
But these are trifling matters made Janmary choice by the him, Ruskin read the proofs of Tchaikovsky, as tine a square- diplomacy. TRUTH WILL OUT. Eilenced by Jane's
By
since Noel Streatfelld can, and] Literary Guild of America, his Praeterita, and Kipling cut as I have seen' since Charles -The neighbouring-dog-must be
Charlotte Haldanes tell an excellent story. A
Rodder The chimney must put down.
and Stoughton have Thowed early drafts of Stalky Mucartney Weidenfeld and Nicolson, family story.
and Co. Thomas lest
published it. with a rejected 12s. 6d. 339 pages.
Buskin, enjoying a new vogue, Just a fashion? Concerning these Elizabeths, a The story of Anna Caldwell's manuscript of "Cromwell."
critic York
remarks: cropp
Marcel on New
up again in visit her who CHARLOTTE was sent by the children
the British climate, Proust's Letters to a Friend DUT there are always scoffers on green (Falcon Press), with interesting in this world. At a concert "Life is too dreary In the Dally Express to get a story Mothering Sunday not only to Perhaps valley
strawberries and green fresh examples of his Influence the other evening my companion the of
shadow of from a young Cambridge selen bring her presents, but because famed for its effect
She they have been hearing those peas, Frederick the Great, That book fist, J. B. S. Haldane.
was heathen from New Zen- took 13 years
to finish, re-ended by marrying him. Excit- strange necounts of Anna, how sward, also has something to do on the great French writer.
what WAS know Proust admired muny English land who had never before been Pathetique, and have mining Jake of the French ing is the career of the woman the has taken to living alone, with raising good women nove-
and wandering about the lists"
authors, George. Ellot among present ut an orchestral concert,
among the violas. child could reporter. marchioness whose
WHE In great them, but Huskin was the only The conductor never get itself born, although
Haldane had two objections to countrysidet
Д
food really form; after every movement he one he read in English.
• Anthologies continue in brisk she carried about for 20 the marriage; (1) Charlotte was
was obliged to mop his hair and wouldn't, naturally, permit the asked Someone
and a planation connected with Tony production, Lately we had them She a Journalist; (2)
brow and the back of his neck possibility of such family black sheep and gaol-of cats, horses and governesses; Madame wa not thinking of Cockney accent.
with a handkerchief.
rence, He has the score in his now R. L. Megroz tells me he Love overcame both, swallowing, a tutor for her son.
Von Bulow head. or, as After marringe
But my companion merely somebody else sald, his head in NOEL STREATFEILD was has one conting this month on -I'rdagegues "So," says Jane, "One might
said: "They don't seem to be osk Carlyle if he is not thinking study of dialectical materialisin, born in Frent in Sussee, where school- masters
Are Human, was curate to
looking at him"-meaning the a publisher for following which Charlotte was her father
into the Communist received
Four
thousand miles across failer, then she lived in Hast- Parly.
ings, Eastbourne and Aually the Southern Pacific on an open where her father was raft that is the adventure des- Neither marriage nor Com- Lewes
Decided at an carly cribed, by one of the six Nor- completely bishop, proved muntim
wanted a stage weglan scientists who did it, in satisfactory. But when Charlotte ape
divorce, the party career. Remained on the stage The Kon Tiki Expedition, which thought prohibited it for volitical rea- for sine years, touring in South Allers and Unwin will publish in
Africa, Australia and New Zea- the Spring, Sona, Bourgeois morality?
land. Later she decided to bc- come an authoress.
Yours.
of swallowing his book!"
if
however, com- There were, pensations for the wife of a celebrity. Charles Darwin might dislike her, but Ernanus was there to take her to Gunters for an ice.
Mazzini, glorious and nusard, was the favourite target for lier mockery, "With one frigate,
come a close
During the war he went to Russia as a correspondent. She
There is of
breaker.
that slic
course,
an ex-
Thor Heyerdahl. the author, has already had a great success
VIGNETTES OF LIFE
• Book full of thrills, now at press with Gollancz, is Licut- general Bor-Komorowski's story of Poland's resistance move inent, The Secret Army.
I think it's
It is not generally
have ihai trombonists
Konu the the service of in C minor
and the symphony
the score.
.
scarcely going
on
conductor
an occur-
or
Assembly
E attends to the assembling
Hof spare-parts into a more
It is an epic of the war, High players"why does he have to spot in where the army, driven Wave his arms about and point
rude." underground, fought from the his slick at them?
carried along It is all very well for the or less balanced whole. Sewers, Messages, arms, wound-
dark, 3f-high,
Althy cynica
to say that conductors invariably under the inipression e, had to be
are just a fashion of a showy that he is "Interpreting" the period, a period all eyes, all for composer.
these tubes.
(London Express Service)
He la
(World Copyright Reserved-London Express Service.)
DAB and FLOUNDER by WALTER
"Just Nerves"
BU KEMP STARRETT
DAB'S
Baring Kangaroo CHALLENGE
NEW MAID.. NEW DISHES.
T
THEY SAY FLEAS
OFTEN AFFECT
-THE HUMAN HERVOUS
SYSTEM.
THUMP
THOMP
TRYING TO SLEEP ON A SHORT COUCH..WHILE THE GUESTS TAKE AN HOUR TO GET SETTLED UP IN,
YOUR ROOM.
COPA, 1950 BY GENERAL FEATURES CORF, TMWORLD RIGHTS RESERVED.
"
THAT JITTERY MOMENT WHEN
SPEAK NOW OR FOREVER HOLD
YOUR PEACE IS MENTIONED.
TAP
TAP
TAP
TAP
I CAN'T THINK
OF EVERYTHING!
30
10781
SUNDAY MORNING...FIVE MILES FROM TOWN AND NOT A CIGARETTE. IN THE HOUSE.
JUST A LITTLE COMMUNICATION
FROM THE INCOME TAX
BUREAU.
RESTLESS GUEST.
THE REPAIR MAN WHO HAS TO TRY EVERY STATION ON THE DIAL...OVER. AND OVER AGAIN.