NEW BOOKS

Southland Times, Issue 24886, 28 October 1942, Page 3

NEW BOOKS

OPIUM DREAMS Captain H. R. Robinson is one of those wandering Englishmen whose adventures in strange places have the colouring of fantasy. In A Modern De Quincey (Harrap, London, 8/6 net) he describes his experiences as a subaltern i in the Indian Army, and later as a captain of the Burma Military Police. _A fatal introduction to opium brought him close to degradation. He became a Buddhist priest in an attempt to break the habit; but this was the first of several failures. How he finally escaped, after many tribulations, is the theme of a moving autobiography. Although the comparison with De Quincey cannot be extended from opium habit to prose style, the book is easy to read; and there are some interesting portraits of minor characters—especially of Ba-Set, a Burmese boy who understood the meaning of friendship. A GREAT SOLDIER The career of General MacArthur is not yet complete: there may be dramatic additions before the biographers have all their materials. Yet enough has already been achieved to make secure the fame of a remarkable man. The story is told in General Douglas MacArthur (By Francis Trevellyan Miller, Angus and Robertson, 8/6). There are glimpses of the cadet at West Point, the officer in France who became a general at the age of 38, and the man who found his later mission in the defence of the Philippines. The average reader will find this book a satisfying introduction to a great soldier. SEARCH FOR AN HEIR Stuart Gallatin, an American diplomat with a nose for trouble, undertakes a search for the missing heir of a Scottish earldom. This is the theme developed ingeniously by David Garth in Road To Glenfairlie (Robert Hale, through Whitcombe and Tombs, 9/6). The story moves rapidly when the search takes Gallatin to a South American republic where the Nazis are about to engineer a coup d’etat. And because the heii’ turns out to be an heiress the quest yields romance as well as adventure. A LONDON MURDER

Gordon Meyrick, a member of the famous night club family, once wrote a successful play which he has now converted into an equally successful novel. Body on the Pavement (Eldon Press, through Whitcombe and Tombs, 9/-) is the story of a conspiracy which comes to the notice of the police when an apparent suicide is proved to be a clear case of murder. DetectiveInspector Haig follows a slender clue, uses a petty thief as a pawn, and organizes the final round-up. Mr Meyrick knows how to distil the atmosphere of London’s half-world, and he keeps his story moving at a fast pace. BOMBS FOR SINGAPORE A German plot to wreck the Singapore naval base can scarcely have a topical interest now that the Japanese are in Malaya. “Sinbad,” who tells how the plot was foiled in The Bomb Ship (Robert Hale, through Whitcombe & Tombs, 8/6) may feel that his hero’s gallant efforts were sadly wasted. But readers who enjoy kidnappings, hand-to-hand fighting and a jungle atmosphere will be glad to forget the facts while they follow the adventures of Bim Gerrard.