THE LATE LUCAS MALET

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1932, Page 17

THE LATE LUCAS MALET

A cable message from. London recently reported the death of Lucas Malet (Mrs., Mary St., Leger Harrison), the novelist. ;■■•.-. Mrs. Harrison was the youngest daughter, of Charles Kingsley, the poet and novelist, and a.niece of Henry Kingsley. , Her"first novel, called "Mrs. Lorimer: A Sketch in Black and White," appeared in 1882, and her later works, included "Colonel Enderby's Wife,'.' "Little Peter," "The Gateless Barrier," "Sir Richard Calmady" (1901),, "The Far Horizon," and in 1924 ',' The Dogs of Want." . Lucas,:M:alet: ". was, a clever novelist, and her books enjoyed a, wido popularity. One of the most noteworthy is "Sir Richard Calmady," which was suggested by the extraordinary career of Arthur MacMorrough Kavanagh, the "armless and legless. member of the House- of Commons. Kavanagh, who was.described as being."almost wholly deprived, of. both legs and arms," was a good horseman and'a skilful sportsman, and he travelled extensively in India, Egypt, and Persia. He sat as an Irish Conservative until 1830. He became a Privy Councillor for Ireland in 1886, and died of pneumonia in his 58th year in 1889. , "Sir Richard Cal■madv'.'/and two or three other of Lucas I Malet's novels were "best sellers" in their day; but late in life their author suffered misfortune, and early this year Bhe accepted a small pension from the Civil list. Her.husband, the Rev. William Harrison, rector of Clovelly, North Devon, died in 1897.

"A. Book of Characters" contains selected studies of personality and attributes, by such makers of "characters" as Theophrastus, Sir Thomas Overbury, Samuel Butler, ana Nicholas Breton. It is an interesting collection,, and ably edited.