BOOKS OF THE DAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20068, 14 October 1939, Page 14

BOOKS OF THE DAY

Reasons For Fhe Social Stability Of France TT is often slated that ‘‘Paris is r.o. 1 France" and in an interesting boo!; which appears at an opportune moment, "Reasons for France," Mr. John Brangwyn proves this fact. A year or 18 months ago the economic situation was grave and this was emphasised during the Munich crisis, but since those momentous days the world has been startled and impressed by the great revival in France. Mr. Brangwyn insists that this change is due to the fact that Paris is not France and in his volume he describes the smaller cities and towns which are really responsible for the social stability of the country. Mr. Brangwyn writes: — "Although France has always been a busy workshop filled with artisans, it is the small land-owner, the farmer, who ranks first. . . . There are 250,000 of them recently listed whose holdings are large enough to live from in comfort. “There are besides over 50,000 vineyard owners, and 40,000 who call themselves gardeners because they own and work their gardens. . . . "Some of the finest hand-made paper is produced by farmers in their off season, some Of the finest cloth is woven by them, the cutting of precious stones, the making of wooden articles —all these industries owe many millions of francs of produel ion to this seasonal work of the man who owns His house and plot o! ground, big or small.

“Take for . instance, the farmer’s devotion and the artisan’s to the gentle rabbit: the rabbit hutch is übiquitous in town and country, as a result there' is an annual crop of rabbit skins of 100,000,000 to be used in all the ways which only a furrier understands.' In and about the cathedral town of Sens over a million francs a year arc earned from rabbits alone." Smaller Towns and Cities As tc the smaller towns and cities Mr. Brangwyn says: — “We must know Lyons by something other than its silk, we must know Limoges by other things than fine china, St. Etienne than by its firearms. .. . Above all we must know the worth of those twenty or thirty towns. . . they are not starred on tiie map but if you were to add their achievements together you would find a sum so important ihat you could understand why in the present sinister period, the foundations of France have not been shaken.

“Take Villefranehe On the Saone, a sort of Cinderella to Lyons, from being the sales room lor the coarse stuffs made in the hills round about it has become an industrial town and produces an average annual two hundred million francs worth’of what we lump together as ‘linings.’ ” “Then there is a group Of villages in that part of Picardy called the Vimen where they are all locksmiths. Listen as you come into any of the tree-shaded streets and there will reach you from the broad low window of each little house the rasp of the lile. Within is the forge and (he workbench and the sooty walls which tell of generations of hard work. "One man is working, or a whole family, at locks and keys, nuts and bolts, brass finishing, for fine furniture —and for markets which have been faithful since the seventeenth century." Reactions m a Crisis “A ND Now England" is a topical 1 novel by W. Townend on the international situation as it affects tlie individual. The captain in the novel lost his wife in the Great War through an enemy submarine, and although he marries again this incident embitters his life. By a strange coincidence too, tlie captain rescues a German ship and its crew, and finds that its captain is the man who years before was in command of the submarine responsible for tlie deatli of his wife. Mr. Townend's characters talk international politics wisely and foolishly at times, but the novel does show the possible reactions of the individual in a time of crisis. “Ideals of Nationhood ’ A centennial edition of “Ideals of Nationhood," a series of addresses by Lord BlcdisloC during tlie period he was Governor-General of New Zealand, has been issued by Thomas Avery and Sons, Limited, New Plymouth Til esc addresses, which were arranged in hook form bv tlie late Mr. T. Lindsay Buick, were first published in 11)33, and created such a demand that tile original edition was sold out immediately on publication. In view of flic number of inquiries for it since, the publishers have issued the new edition as a centennial gesture of the Dominion's approach to manhood. This series of addresses provides a picture of New Zealand past ana present, and even of the future, and the ideals so eloquently addressed to the people of New Zealand still remain tlie fundamental basis on which to build a nation. The subjects cover ail phases of our life. Lord Biedisloe provides a short foreword to the centennial edition.

Snatched at a Shadow jWIR. ERNEST RAYMOND in "The Miracle of Bream’’ raises a moral issue and gives a solution which will not convince everybody. Lettie Meadowes, who is nearly 40 years, lives in a Sussex village with ner mother, and hitherto romance aas paved her by, when suddenly she gets to know a blind man and ■his wife. The beauty of lire Sussex scenery does not lessen the sordid character of the intrigue with the blind man'" though in Mr. Raymond’s hands it becomes a powerful psychological study. At the end of it all Lettie leaves the village to avoid scandal, and Mr. Raymond’s final words summarise his aim:—“The .suffering and the reshaping of Lettie Meadowes were a very small episode under the hills. To hills that had watched the Weald cut by the rain they were a momentary and insignificant change. .. . But who shall measure the worth of things?’’ It is, on the whole, a picture of a woman who snatches at a shadow and whose reactions are interpreted by Mr. Raymond with a sensitive touch. Books m Demand \ WEEKLY list provided by Mis, ‘ ‘ Brenda S. Cox, Librarian. Turanganui Library:— Fiction FITE CITY OF GOLD, by Francis Brett Young. HEREWITH THE CLUES, by Dennis Wheatley. HIE BLIND SIDE, by Patricia Wentworth. LOVE IN THE SUN, by Leo Walmslev. STRANGERS IN LOVE, Mary How ard. ANCHOR COMES BACK, bv Humfrey Jordan. FIREBRAND, bv Tom Gill. BLOSSOM LIKE THE ROSE, by Norah Lofts. TOO SEE OURSELVES, by Rachel Field and A. Pederson. AND NOW ENGLAND, by W. Townend. Non-Fiction MY YEARS IN GERMANY, by Martha Dodd HIE IMPORTANCE OF LIVING, by Lin Yutang. SKY HIGH TO SHANGHAI, by Frank Clime. REACHING FOR THE STARS, by Nora Wain. YOU'RE WELCOME, by Charles Graves. YEAR OF RECKONING, by G. Ward Price. AUSTRALIAN JOURNEY, by Paul McGuire. TIN CAN ISLAND, by C. S. Ramsay and C. Plumb.