12
BOOKS AND PEOPLE
THEY PROUDLY PRESENT-
by JON HOPE
IN the part of the world where I spent my youth
unknown. The
highest
BOOKS
THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH,, SATURDAY, JULY. 8, 1950.
The private army of Mr. Peniakoff
WHEN war was declared
against Hitler, Vladi- mir Penlakoff was a 45- year-old sugar refinery man-
superlatives were practicallyger in Egypt whose spare. time activity was navigat- ing the desert.
.ever heard- praise I "Not so bad."
Was
Unfortunately for actress Rene
He was bored with club
A CANDID LOOK AT THE BOOKS
life, disgusted by commer- recital of unusual facts and Its
day, my early training has left cial parasites and fascinated out of comfortem. A duel between
And
career
Apart
thusinsin
units, little to
two Svengalis
►OBERT HICHENS' first
Popski's about his own ud- Mins Why mark.
Bay by the Arab way of life. Because she has written a new
Arabs, for Popaki ventures and the escapades of
other. irregular desert novel called Emma Conquest,
Ary has It is described to me as "richly (as he was known through private"
Rovel was published when in the offer as a discerning study in Army utterly realistic, un-his fortable. Such phraseology Middle East and Italy), were
humanity,
For anyone who saw service he was 17. Is latest, Beneath i apt to discourage me before
glimpse of the not handsome sheikhs with even get a
smouldering eyes, but hardy, the Middle East, however, the Magic, was written at the
Private Army is a completely age of 88. lived satisfying
maps record. The who inen simple
In those 80 years between make 11 worth the
the Arst and Intent (with Mr austerely and with courage alone
money.
Ilichens it would be presump- in the most inhospitable
Private Army. by Vindiair
tuous to say "last")," he has (Cape written ("Popsiei"). setting in the world.
Pentalon
60 novels, more than London). Angus and Robert-
a dozen collections of short 25/-
stories, und reverai ploys,
enver.
So. Ming Ray, until the book comes from Eyre and Spottis- woode, please forgive me if I restrict further comment to a monosyllabic "Imm." It's the way I was brought up,
His early jobs for the Army reconnaissance mainly were
be- patrols hundreds of miles Sind the German-Italian lines.
Managing Director A. Frere, of Heinemann, is printing 100,000 copies of quaintly titled novel, A,Town Like Alice, hy Ney Shute. It is due in June. The author's No Highway, de corated with tho Evening Standard Book of the
Month
Meun, topped the 100,000 mark Clever Shute. nppy Shute.
in the days of the British high favour port in Raja among the Lettich inclined was to attack our add-tration of The Indians.
Now all that is over.
Fed and supplied by the Long Range Desert Group, who ured the desert as anall craft Pupski Krew to use the sen, know and love his Arabs more than ever,
Tukiced, Popski's great friend
Sa'ad All and ally,
Rahuma, almost steals the show
Private
Arme
أب
301,
A new novel by
a girl prodigy
malure
MISS Catherine Gaskin, of Sydney, caused a literary air when she wrote This Other
remarkably Eilen I novel, ut the age of 18.
Miss Gaskin is now 20 and in the tells her third novel, Dust
Selight, bears out the promise of her earlier bunks.
Popski alorien markable daring EXCITING with
strangu mixture of modesty and pride,
The result i
a
clear picture
even al
Sun, Dust in the Sunlight in told in the first person, and the the love story of Ruth Channing, nction takes place in England, and America. France, Ireland It's and story with a happy
of a man, not without faults, who caine to control a famous Soon it will be three years Since the transfer of power, and randing unit known,
the
Popski ending War Offer,
The novel has its fulls. The Army. Hoon, too, we shall be able to
tran 1- characters nce ch read what a well-known Indian
Private Army
delightened to ejarulate "God!" and is a D.F, Karaka thinks albut
at times they net its
narrative, its ler: 0 things sauce the wicked British for
detail
overtheatrically, necurate From the time he emetiociously feared out. was first lodian predent of the and its soldierly sumplicity.
the nen Oxford Union, Karaka's career
Popski castigates has been a series of explosions, who let him down through in- A lively weekly he ran in India
efficienty of responsibility as
as he praizes nnoyed the nu- thoroughly considerably
It latest book will men who measureu "horitie
again. Homewhat unorthodox any them no doubt
Betrayal in India.ards. Its Ble Publisher,? Vietor Gollancz.
the
up to his #land-
mcana
It we can judge by Beneath the Magic, lichens is a triffe garrulous but by no senile. His story is remarkably clear in both perception and execution.
Hichers' sixtieth novel is the
of Serdue
Ardsley,
tale
INTIMATE
Russo American
THE SPECIALIST
DAB and FLOUNDER. --by Walter
DAVID BLACK'S
KENNELS WELL TRAINED WATCH DOGS FOR BALL
RECORD REVIEW
cuncert
pinnisi.
lol of the musi-
cal world.
The author. Indied
A ho
music us a young
Muste, is, of course, completely an at the Royal College of home in the selling he has
chopen,
contact with kim.
Leila Hartmann.
feneath
the Magic
Senor so soothing
astrament
which
Andres
NEW BOOKS.
by GEORGE MALCOLM THOMSON
Uproar! And no
wonder
THE MUDLARK. By Theodore Allen. 91. 6d. 280 pages.
Bonnet.
ter. He writes like this: "Gold -scrolls over white coup plates sparkled clear in the Park's sun· without." And this:
"In watched Mrs Weatherby W. H. glance about with, unconcern, with the especially humble half mile who used when in the
THIS good-hearted but silly novel of Victorian same room as with what must Inferior have seemed, to her, England is built up round the adventure of an strangers, while the walter Blood relaxed behind Abbot's purpling urchin named Wheeler, a mudlark.
face."
In up.
Wheeler, in other words, is one of those grimy And he tells most of his too- waifs, described in Henry Mayhew's London rynimetrical narrative Labour and the London Poor, who earned 3d. a logues, is characters pair off, change partners, change ogoln- day combing the Thames mud at low tide for old but never stop falling. Reading Mr Green in like watching a iron, pieces of coal, nails, bones and so forth.
very long tennis rally between Wheeler does better. Car- Theodore Bonnet has blown experts, too evenly matched.
into a vart ried up-river on a barge; he ne le episode
allstening bubble of absurility. goes ashore at Windsor and ite has gone for his local colour Alout? Precious Mille. makes his way into the to the best authorities. Yet aj- Castle. There he interrupts most every detail is just a little the Queen at dinner with wrong. And the pleture of Eng- Lend which finally emerges? the Prime Minister, Disraeli. Tule a mercy on me, this is
The intrusion is by no means none of I." welcome.
But what is the novel all
Mary Pomfret and Philip Weatherby, respectable civil ser off again. Thus they cause two ants, get engaged, and break it separate waves of crisis among their frivolous elders, Mary's
Themlore Bonnet, Californian father and his mistress, Philip's in 20 Angelae. mother and her lover. The Queen has been looking tournalist, lives
The Mudiat, itis Aral Idea for
Once upon n time. Mary's novel, came to him when a sergeant: forward to Dismeli's visit, for
of this in 1.5. army in the Paste. father and Philip's mother had alchemic mind "the
OF ISLES
UN- an air, so had Mary's mother Cagliostro of courtiers, bringing THE
By Robert (deceased) and Philip's father the sheen of glamour out of the
WISDOM.
(likewise deceased). commonplace, touching all with romance, always delighted her."
hopes that Pesides, she Prime Minister, sometime during dinci, will ask her to become Empress of India,
*
the
Graves. Cassell. 10s. Od. 417 pages.
But you may still wonder why Ar Green wartes lila fussy inletit whipping such thin cream.
Now, brought together by s novel should have been their children's engagement and its breach, Mary's father and put in an artificial lung. R
to get Philip's mother deelde through tolts down and dies
married. His mistress and her You wit Disraeli has, however, a d sheer lack of oxygen.
see what I mean by "syn- It opens under the happiest of over also pair eff. ferent object from the Queen,
with nil Robert
metrical." to persuade her to suspices, He hopes
(not to say
You may also gather why OR quiet mooth give the theepen the Manchester Exhibition Graver's robust
humour deployed, to Not the electrified of Scientific Industry.
coarse) guitae.
Wheeler's arrival spoils every give a lively account of the de- Philip of the respectable new the older says of arture of a Spanish expedition generation, radget used to simulate South
10 find and prople. They're wicked, darling. Sea balminess, but the eloquent thing.
Obviously, !! is no moment to from Peru(1585)
They've had two frightful wars rettle the Solomon Islands.
donc nothing about 1 Serlus is a man who Segovia has brought out of thepenk of exhibitions,
But the voyage proves to be they've It has a
in and they're dominates all who come in mists of prejudice.
will
Jong and tedious. And the char- except fight When, early soothing quality which
canvas rotten lu the core. neters, though put on musical into a
brush, do in his career, his wife dies in turn any man
The mudlark is led away by with a cominanding
dramatic into elreum-ercapist. rather mysterious
compete stances. Sergius blammes actress There are two recbrils pre-John Brown, the Queen's for- Lot
It is a story of weak, confused fer above all others this month midable Scottish #llic, who is elion. of his because they bring us the true wistful link" with the Bay intrigurs between the leader of td times at Balmoral.
Although Wheeler now fades the expedition, General Alvaro murie, the pianist is a ruthless tenderness of the guitar. One is Endist. His egotkan, his refusal by the master himself, Segovia.
wife, Dena Ysabel (brutal with- from the story (he in kept inde de Montana, a poor wretch: his LIBRARY LIST
Clerkenwell by unitely Meridional the Sonatina
being
impressive), her House of Correction from which. who Punce. Thin sulte is
licate affair which has its baris however, he can see the Cutty thick-headed brothers; and their in the folk music of the Latur sark railing down the Thames), enemy the Colonel in command - of the Queen's of the soldiers, a drunken figure world; In its three movements its invasion
tremendous of fun. n The story of Sergius, the
causes pastorni privacy
with guitar elches
It anven the reader to present an tproar in the land. man at the pinto, and Sergius, the
of a muddled qualid picture
cruelty, and This reaches its climax when venture, aimless during "the trouble" in Ireland the man away from his music, scene, moves on
doubt, au- are movingly and excitingly is one of duni personality. The engaging song and ends appro-
Disraeli. addressing the House, wretchedness, No with BI) authenic story of Sergius nad Lella Ispriately with a fiesta.
nikes the mudlark a symbol of thertie. It does not excite, depicted,
of
and than
woman
Robert Graves, post and novelist, touch of tension and underlying that
lives (Parlophone, all the under-privileged classeą
1805. Second chutee
Born in London prepared to sacrifice friendships
whom he is about to rescue from
Majorca, tragedy.
on the altar of their dominating RO 20580) is of soprano Olg that on It's a pretty sute bet
Coelho
Spankh he reactionary Liberals, singing three with experience, erotism.
And so, we are led to suppose, Andalush Canelon Robert Hichens
mag be
Bongs, Miss Gaskin, will someday write something
the old. "Gothic" England passes Austriana L Fash
while Mr Gladstone's has a lot to say. And he'll Nana (Falla), Here is the guitar away,
The whiskers seem to "stand straight quite notable in the field she but like Butnard Shaw, he still servia)
the Sunlight,
as accompaniment. usel by probably keep on saying it. Dunt in
Beneath the Magic,
by songs are a delight and they arout from his face and give off MR Green does not to much Catherine Gaskin (Collins, Lon-
(Hutchinson, enriched by sensitive playing. lichens don and Sydney). Angus and Robert
(London Express Service) 10/0.
London). Dymock's. 11/-. Robertson.
sunne
10
One would also like to see Miss Gaskin develop a
to be dominated by a woman, On Columbia LX 1275 he plays of comedy VISKER
her brings him into constant con- relieve
diel with penchant for sudden death and tragedy.
Still, Dust in the Sunlight, is astonishingy rophisticated from
The
one so
young.
Former members of the AIF will be interested in the many .Fred Raon, of Walworth, as
in Pop- references to Tobruk well as being a bookseller, is a famous collector of autographs, ski's narrative.
of Private The knows that.
firal hilf Nearly everybody But I can tell you something | Army, the desert half, is a res markably fine record of desert that hardly anybody knows. A
But the dary wiflch Fred has been keep-ighting and hardstip. ing for about thirty years is to later part of the book lapses oki cam- another into yet b published by Wingate.
men who were has chosen. somewhist tedious
It was James Agate who tohter's story of interest
this big name hunter: "Always diary and one day it keep a may keep you."
--(London Express Service)
inainly to the there aud
to these who were not
The mun
| Private Artis
enjoyment arises from its
of
scenes
the
actress
Bthis to mould his playing to her will.
VIGNETTES OF LIFE
"I HEAR YOUR HUSBAND HAS
BEEN ILL?
HOW IS RES
MY AUNT SUE. WAS OPERATED ON LAST
MONTH AND COUSIN FRED HAD A BAD
FALL...
FELL
20.
quiet, de
Spanish Songs
Ja
the
"parks"-and who
them!
will blame
111
Henry By NOTHING.
Greek. Hogarth Press. 8. 6d. 247 pages.
write his book, he fleks
at it rather, with a feather dus-
9% 6d.
The Green Tree and the Drs. lly Stute-succestul Jvan tue. 240 pages. Anuther h novel about an unsuccessful revolu 10 in a nameless country for an unidentified causo, Early pumages convey, but later 15se. some of the real psaston of revolt, & few notable characters, particularly one half-sympathetic porumit vt à inay police chief.
A log on Jeo. By Charles Zaria Funk. Aurray. 10. 6d. 14 page A history of the origin and develop ment of pungent idioma, a used hero or th America.
Dust in Hanlight By Catherine Caskin. Collins. 4. 6d. 156 page. A competent, promising story of a atcity is young woman's love England (World War 1) and Ire land (Troubles), Bliss Garkin will get over writing about blue eyes that were yelled sloopily" and
beauty of
Which type acoless."
#
London Express Žervios.
They Never Would Be Missed
Bu KEMP
STARRETT
"OOPS./"
OVER
A
AND
ON
ARD
~
THE ONES WHO ASK A QUESTION AND NEVER
GIVE YOU A CHANCE TO ANSWER IT.
III. Jo! HOM'S TRICKS
HA! WHERE'S
YOUR HORSE
P
THEN THERE'S THE LAD WHO SHOWS HIS REGARD TOR YOU BY CAVING W YOUR LUNGS FROM THE REAR.
"FIRE SALE
COPR. 1750 BY GENERAL TEATURES COMP, TM.WORLD RIGHTS RESERVED.
شکار
HI COUNTRY GENTY!
THOSE PARTIES IN THE
APARTMENT UP STAIRS.
THE ONES WHO GET A GREAT KICK OUT OT KIDDING YOU ABOUT YOUR, CLOTHES..
THE ONES THAT
WANT TO SEE SOME
SYSTEM IN THE PANTRY FOR ORCE.
THOSE DINNER GUESTS WITH FINGERS AS SLIPPERY AS A BUS-DRIVER'S PANTS.
*** RA? WHAT A FUNNY HAME, BEVERLY SHQUMPH /*
"DID YOU SEE THIS ABOUT
THE CUTE KITTENS
"CUTE".
SPELLED
WITH AK?"
WANNA
TELL YA A
SITORY-
DJA EVER.
HEAR
TH-
Stanna.
WHEN YOU'RE TRYING TO READ,
THE ONES THAT GET BOILED, BUT GOOD, AND ARE OVERCOME WIT
AFFECTION FOR YOU.