1951-03-10 — Page 12

12

GEORGE MALCOLM THOMSON

"reviews" the NEW BOOKS.

Back to the quarterdeck, Hornblower!

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1951:

PEOPLE

Sellers' market

by

Jon Hopo

Here are two publishers in- tent on maintaining the strangest curiosity of the book business. Which Is? That when publishers authors they get their books issued by rival publishers.

parish and wibo will be -saved that the book maira- tains, and 'eyon tightens its grip on the nerves. Old Mr Dony, the prophet, RANDALL AND THE that Randall has made £1,000

RIVER OF TIME, By C. with an invention, marries him, may perauiade some people that She is the first to regret it, his vision of the bursting dam of imminent glimpse Forester. Michael

Es D 3.

when after the war she socs is

turn Douglas, Young Mary Joseph, 108.

Gd. 320 the boy she has married in his reality.

cheap clvvy sult. Her concllon defying her mother, may go to (and escape drown- pages.

is that of a vulgar, predatory the dance

ing) or succumb to that last- woman.

minute gush of sentiment for her parents-and

Y

"EOMAN, make a signal Horn- to Admiral blower: Rejoin the fleet, immediately.!

des..

Now let nobody misunder- stand me. When a walter of Forester's calibre, a natural- born tale-spinner, a master of the hard, economical criptive line, seeks to break fresh ground, thero should be nothing but sympathy for the venture. Plus the hope that it will succeed.

But when an error in tactics has been made, firm counter- manding orders must be issued.

In his new novel, planuod as

the first of a series.

C

Foraster

Sooner or later, more or less cruelly the disastrous marriage them, will explode. It soon and it is very cruelly,

Itundall discovers Muriel's adultery and kills her lover. He

'AN ERROR

IN TACTICS'

C. 5. FORESTER'S

new book it on example of talents misapplied, says Thomson

desoris from Nelson's navy just escapes 14 years for man-

joins the BEF of 1917. slaughter, and

Such

is the ugly, common- is describing the While he

story that Forester un- deeds and the men of war, his place

He tells it graphically old surencss

touch, his folds. of

and well, yet it remains com- knowledge thorough

of the nonplace. For his is not the brain, heart and atomach of the

Cat Oghter, remain unimpaired, for sort of genius that can invest sordid tale with the splendour

tragedy, or explore it for of the furtive psychological truths It may concësi,

This is an example of talents misupplied.

all to admire.

trench roid two merc

Consider thut which ocruples pages in the first chapter. A Geautifully lurid glimpse, Leav- etched in the ing #picture

mind.

(with- Rar-

Young Randall survives the rald, in which young Cross is killed-killed because. out a by-your-leave to dall) he has elected to take the more destrable post at sund-tv.

mildly Randall had

resented that. Cross being junior to him.

When Randall, hurt and puzzied by it pil, is last seen, he is heading for America and, let us hope, for adventures more congenial to himself and his creator, He is off to a bad start.

THE DELUGE. By Lan Niall, Heinemann. 9s. 6d. 276 pages.

THE

deluge sweeps through

Can you imagine Midship Water Row and should also

mun Hornblower mildly

Away any lingering about Niall's quality.

senting it or anything cise sweep that his fiery spirit could in- doubts terpret as a slight? Would not This 13 his that fist have swung? In that novel. single incident you

gulf that yi Wils

have the

however, wer

fourth, and best

at

IL is laid in a countryside between neither pretty nor gentle. Forester's new hero and his fature is in a savage North old Between the stole Horn Country mood; an

enemy to blower and the easy-going be watched, a destroyer capable Randell,

of obliterating everything one impulsive stroke. book is not, The about Rondall's

From the first chapter, there with the Germans, but his is no doubt how "The Deluge" private

The dam called the war with his wife, will end.

Water the South Ling Wall Home on, Irave in

will break

be Booded. will

And London suburb, be meets & Row vulgar, predatory war widow everybody will be drowned, somewhat older than himself. Everybody? It is just because impressed by the fact we are not sure who will

Muricl

public

perish

with

When not busy pushing his own wares

Lehmann, John champion of the avant garde

Ja

on his working brigade, memoi. He has sold the book has in advance to Longmans, The loathsome blackmailer, also contracted with them for Charlie Cosh,

with his false

other books Collected two and his accent

Pooms and a volume of critical American Becondhand Stetson hat

essays called "The Open Night." sketch of petty magnificent

Next, Rupert Hart Davis. too evil)-he

muy escape. After five years' hard work ("in which would bo Intolerable,

time; evenings and And so may the abominable my spare Maggie Snell of The Black Bee, week-ends") he is now putting Anishing touches to biography of which would be almost as bad. the late Sir Hugh Walpole. His From moment to moment, book will bear the Imprint of from one decision to the next, the house of Macmillan.

the

which won the

the privileged reader watches Still reaping beneût from his

fates at their sport with

successful "Broken Images," these, always knowing what

Heinemann will be the consequence of each

Prize, Foundation

thirtyish, step. He knocks at one door, greying John Guest has gone off then at another-Niall takes

to attend lectures on American him into an unprepossessing

literature at Balzburg, Course is domestic in-sponsored by United States Go- 1tle series of teriora.

vernment-with all

expenses pald. It lasts a month. Attending are 50 young writers from 10 European countries. Lecturers are professors from Harvard, Cornell, Ohio Universities.

How many are doomed? Not, surely, clairvoyant, tiresome, Mr Dow, so confident in his the survival! Not until own

st

few pages do we realise that Niall may be saving up a last-minute irony for his Jeremiah. What

a good job Forester would have made of "The Deluge." And how interesting to see what Niall would have done with Randall

+

".

-(London Express Service)

⚫ Down in Devon, Elizabeth Goudge is engaged on her twen- tieth book. It is a life of Christ, She will call it "God So Loved The World." In the 18 years she has been writing, Miss Goudge has made big money. Her novel "Green Dolphin Country" won a

filmed. prize of £30,000, was

HAVE YOU EVER DREAMED THAT-

YOU WERE TRYING TO DRAG SOMEONE FROM THE WATER BUT COULD HOT BECAUSE HE WAS, ENDLESS -

MEANS: Some one you love very much is bont on mossing up his own life and on self-sabotage, and all your efforts to help soom to come to nothing. His capacity for remaining in troublo is endloss, just as is the body being dragged from

-THIS DREAM

A young Dutch girl watches from a window in her home as women hang their laundry on the lines to dry during washday on the little island of Marken. A constant breeze blowing across the Zulder Zee keeps the clothes fluttering. The colourful native costumes of the 1.450 inhabitants of Marken make the island an attractive lure for tourists.

A British Crossword Puzzle CheSNAPSHOT CUILD

ACROSS

DOWN

Dimlist.

1

1 Hurry.

Precinc

2 Obstipate.

8 Cattle.

Artist's workshop.

11 Implied.

12 Boll down.

14 Master.

10 Solitnry, 18 Machinery. 10 Knock senseless.

24 Scare.

#

25 Boredom.

28 Pezentate. 27 Rovise.

26 Way out.

3 Piece of money.

4 Departure.

5 Beg

A

0 Sale.

7

Gossiper.

10 Evil spirit.

18 Propidate.

14 Hussy

15 Chooked

17 Sensational.

19 Sally,

21 Mass of ice.

22 Dreadful.

23, Mischievous creatures.

YESTERDAY'S CROSSWORD.-Across: 1 Suave, 4 Braser, 8 Rabbit, 10 Opens, 12 Loafer, 14 Precept, 17 Trim, 19 Itorate, 20 Furnace, 22 Lead. 23 Asylums, 27 Rialto, 29 Ralds, 30 Skimpy, 31 Layman, 32 Lange. Down: 1 Strip, 2 Amble, 3 Exile, 5 Roof, 6 Sierra, 7 Resume, 0 Tropical, 11 Patrol, 13 Attests, 15- Roue, 10 Candid, 18 Item, 20 Floral, 21 Rarity, 24 Yokel, 25 Unman, 28 Style, 28 Asla."

the water.

AND THEN THAT YOU WERE TRYING TO RESCUE SOMEONE FROM DROWNING BUT YOUR.

HANDS JUST WENT

THROUGH HIM ?

You realise he is doing nothing to help himself ——as 'is.symbolised by his body being limp. All your efforts to help come to nothing; your hands just go through him.

It seems obvious that you alone cannot cope. Ha li a problem för a doctor or a psychiatrist.

Right: Young Master Jay Helfelz Improvises

a little something on the plane for an admiring audience of two proud parents, Frances and Jascha Helletz. Papa, a famed violinist, may be getting a few pointers from his son's technique.

Here's a natural, story-telling plature symbolleing the opening

of school.

SCHOOL DAY PICTURES

the

THE son of a neighbour of sure, even plans to make some THE

mine is off on an ambitious classroom shaps. He also hopes project-a personal school year to picture some of the dozens of activities which hla book to be made from photo- special graphs which he plans to shoot school carries on the plays, in

the auditorium, the band. in the next few months.

different clubs and organisations. He told me: "I want to get plc- tures of almost every kind closeups, group shots, the kind of pictures, that tell what school really is."

It seems like a good idea, teen-agers suited not only to who will be using their cameras themselves, but equally suited to the parents of children not yet at the picture-taking age. For there

are few periods in life which are more pleasant to look back on than school days.

Naturally, such

ich a personal

follow some, book should chronological order and should

year

contain story-telling pictures- pictures that catch the spirit of schoolboys and schoolgirls.

offers a illustration off

Today' title picturnas,

for a year book, since it spells out "School" unmistakably, It's a good Illustration, the

easy

too, of candid informality which males any snapshot good, There's no effort here to pose the boy or girl, to ine them up against a wall and-"ready, alm, shoot." The print is as natural as the rush from the

school building when the bell end the day.

But this is only one of-the scores of pictures which school life affords snaps of athletic

classroom events,

scenes. crowd of classmates around piano, a teen-ager primping for her first dance.

My neighbour's boy, to

be

To which his father made one Surt Egestion: "Let's just be you have a report card which you can picture proudly, 100." John van Guilder.

CINEMA

.** Ethel *** teran's pou wearing your new “aling- backs when we went in ?”

London Mapress Service.

Pic: William H. Cole is trying out a captured Chinese Red bugle and a Mongolian pony. But his Joke wasn't appreciated by his tormented buddies who have heard those blasts from the enemy, and Cole's humour was rewarded with a-shower of rocks and stones.

Below: Grateful young- 'sters at New York's Wel-

fare House express thanks after receiving two dolls from Pakistan. Mrs Salda Isa, wife of a Pakistan delegate to the United Nations, made the presen.. tation.

Art studens. Bernice-ElitRİ

·brush stroke fo her ent

ir Detroita. Bernice's etry, designed liar baby foot prints of cocom browia om