BOOK NOTES.

Hutt News, Volume 11, Issue 11, 9 August 1928, Page 2

BOOK NOTES.

(By "Observer.")

A new story by Cecil Roberts called "David and Diana" will be published shortly by Hodder and Stoughton. Mr,. Roberts has written a great London novel, in which he - tells the very human ' story of a young girl from the provinces and her London lover. Their romance is symbolised by two statues, that of "Diana" in Hyde Park, and

of '' David in Grosvenor Place.. The real Diana, revolting against the stern discipline of her father, a vicar in a Midland.town, puts her fortune to the test by going to London to seek a living. She knows no one except a mysterious .young man whom she met one riotous night in the Nottingham Goose <*. F'siv. His -name, lie told her. was David, and she encounters him one day, thinking of her, as he looks at the statue of "Diana" in Rotten Row. Prom this point the romance rapidly develops, but young love does not run smooth and- dramatic events ensue. Diana becomes secretary to a blind young baronet, whose love soon places her in an embrasassing situation. Mr. Cecil Roberts is a master of intimate character study, weilding a pen that has made his characters beloved for their humour, pathos and brightness. In his new romance he presents a charming old lady, Mrs. Maggs, a London landlady who, despite shilling-in-the-slot gas meters, and a- house _that har-. bours a host of varied young people climbing to fame, contrives to mother them' all. In the characters of Mrs. Maggs and the blind baronet, Sir Lionel Glent, Mr. Roberts has drawn two figures of intense heroic pathos. On the lighter -side there is the unclrushable Cherry Carmen, the young actress, and the impossible Br. Moult, the young pretender. In 3 such "a setting delightful Diana and young David work out, through disastrous events, their story amid the bricks of London. It would ri*ot be Mr. Cecil Roberts if he did not carry his readers abroad once, and so the author of "Scissors'/ and '' Sails of Sunset shows us Diana on the Riviera for a brief time, a setting that calls forth the colour and descriptive power which has made Iris -work famous. David and Diana is a delectable story of London lovers.

Hodder and Stoughton also announce the early publication of a new novel by Louise Jordan Miln, called "The Flutes of Shanghai." Mrs Miln's new book, like most of her qthers, is a story of the real China. John Cadell was a power in Shanghai, a power -in China, whose people he understood and loved. In troubled 1927, with the loyal help of Hing Mee-Yin, the flute girl of "The Flutes of Shanghai" he dared death at Chinese hands and calumny from European tongues, for the ultimate benefit of both the White and the Yellow races, and risked all to save the posthumous honour of his friend. Ruth Blade travels with her rich aunt to China, and helps to unravel the tangled skein and finds.her own happiness. Xot a laboured account of international differences —a story of human heats; not a historical treatise, yet it throws a powerful searchlight "on <Jhina 's present poignant dilemma and on the consequent peril to British interests in China.. A thoughtful book, eloquently written, fearless in pronouncement, full of colour and fra-

grance, saturated with the haunting music of Chinese flutes. .

Although P. C. Wren's "Beau Ideal has only been on sale in: all parts of the world for three weeks, the announcement is made through Roberson and Mullens, Melbourne, that Wren's next book will be called "Otto Belleme" and will be published late in 1929.

The passing of Sir Edmund Goose removes one of the most distinguished men of-letters from the. arena of EngLiterature. Fir sixty years he was active in the service, not merely of letters, but definitely of neglected, forgotten or misunderstood letters.^ Into whatsoever of waywardness his tem.perament may from time to time have led him, he never faltered in acknowledging jiew merit, nor-hesitated to criticise bad work although the name that sheltered it may have been eminent enough. He was an adventurer in the .oceans of literature, who did a mighty service for his generation in his discovery of much hidden wealth. His death deprives us of one, who as a critic, on his own subjects had unrivalled knowledge, and on most other subjects a power of skilled and vivid commentary, -c

Hodder. and Stoughton announce publication in the autumn season of an outstanding contribution to the- permanent naval history of the Great War, in a book entitled '' Mystery Ships" by Rear-Admiral Gordon Campbell, V.C.,. the "Mystery V.C." who commanded the\"Q 7'-ships. This is the first hand account of one of the most thrilling and important phases in modern naval history. As commanding officer of those mystery or "Q "-ships, which.played such a brave part in the anti-submarine section of the War, Admiral Campbell was specially promoted first to Commander and then Captain for his brilliant bravery in a most difficult campaign. For some time he was known as the '' Mystery V.C.'; but now that'there is no further need for screcy, Admiral Campbell is Able to relate the tnhralling experiences of how he hunted, trapped and destroyed German submarines, and how in turn his own mystery ships were torpedoed under him. This is a volume of considerable importance -historically, but it is so full of exciting incident and touched with humour, that it holds the reader's attention to the end. A number of illustrations have been included to make even, the more technical portions of the account full of popular interest. ♦