BOOKS REVIEWED

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 175, 14 October 1927, Page 12

BOOKS REVIEWED

A PARSON AMONG WITCHES THERE is no better story-teller holding the: public ear to-day than John Buchan, M.P. It is true that he has gone into politics, but the tar-barrel has not ’’tyled’’ his hand or clogged its cunning. His latest novel “Witch Wood,” seems better than his previous best. Perhaps this impression is due to its freshness and its quaint difference from his other tales of romance and thrilling adventure. It is a Scottish narrative, and presents a vivid picture of Lowland life in the days of the Covenanters. The manse, of course, dominates the canvas though, to be sure, there come into the background the shadows of wanchaney things and such eldritch folk as witches and those eerie beings that haunt dark woods in the gloaming and at dawn. The hero of the romantic tale is a callow Presbyterian minister, but newly ordained to a kirk in the

village of his children, an earnest lad, loyal to the Solemn League and Covenant, and eager to wrestle with Satan. There are grim brethren of the braidcloth, grimmer Pharisaical elders, a critical congregation without praise, and a lass with roguish eyes. Hero and there theology is quaint. A moorfowl for dinner had loosened a tooth in the hard mouth of a visiting minister. The molar was taken out carefully and wrapped in a kerchief. “I have kept ilka tooth I have ever cast,” said its loser, “and they will go into my coffin with me that my bodily parts may be together at the Resurrection.” “Would you shorten the arm of the Lord?” a brother in faith asked testily. “Can He no gather your remnants from the uttermost parts of the earth?’’ “True, true,” answered the toothless minister, “but it’s just my fancy to keep all my dust in the one

place.” In a parish of these and similar beliefs was it to be wondered at that the Moderator, a zealous formalist, but a coward, and the whole pack of long-faced elders should have hounded the young preacher for meeting the “Queen of the Fairies” in a wood? A delightful story, as fascinating as it is charming-. It reveals John Buchan at his best. “Witch Wood,” by John Buchan. Our copy comes direct from the publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, London. An Actress; and Some Men. A novel written around the stage starts with an immense advantage, which it is easy to lose. But if the novelist, is called Robert Hichens he knows better than to lose it, either by letting it slip through his fingers or by leaning too heavily on it, as cn a crutch. Mr Hichens, in “The Bacchante and the Nun,” has written a fascinating story in which the strong light of the theatre beats upon the history of a great career won and renounced, of a love answered at last with a hopeless “Never.” The characters are boldly drawn, not without subtlety, either; and it is a feature of the story that it is told for the most part in excellent dialogue. Mr Hichens’s heroine, an actress who captures fame in London and dismisses it, to escape self-betrayal in the security of religion, convinces one of her reality as flesh and blood, brain, and spirit—convinces one, too, that she is a great actress, perhaps because Mr Hichens sensibly avoids the almost certain disaster of attempting to describe the imaginary triumphs of an imaginary actress in an imaginary play. There are false touches in the book, but few; for the author has shown the greatest tact in fitting his people;

to the design of his plot, and both to the setting. The book should be a sweeping success, and deserves to be. “The Bacchante and the Nun.” Rnhe l " l Hichens. Methuen. Our copy from Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd. Enough ... I For its triteness of expression and the lamentably-weak quality of its epigrams commend us to “Men ARE Pigs,” by Bueno de Mesquita, who is hereby awarded the stodgy currantbun. Let us quote but two “apophthegms”: Get the most out of every man you can. And then you won’t be getting you).' own back. Kissing a clean-shaven man is like eating a. pancake without lemon. As a soporific (or a sudorific) the tome can be cordially recommended. “Men ARE Pigs." The Cornstalk Publishing Company. Our copy comes direct from the publishers. Mystery Dark and Deep. In the pleasant garden city of Letchwyn Toots Delahaye, a. lady who entertained noisy parties, and in Grace Sawyer’s opinion was a “person,” was found one day with her head split open. The kitchen chopper lay on the floor beside her. Who used the chopper? Was it Giles Cowdray, Miss Miller’s dwarf nephew? Or was it Jack Cowdray, his reckless and handsome twin brother? Or was It Toot’s redheaded ex-husband? Or could it just possibly have been Mr Sawyer, who ought to have been asleep at the time, and said he was, but might not have been? Or was it —? Whoever it was, It took Inspector Moray, Gilmartin from Scotland Yard, and Dumoulin from Paris to find out; and the reader who steps along the trail behind them will get a very happy and exciting run for his money. “The Witness at the Window.” Charles Barry. Methuen. Our copy comes from the publishers. Wild Life In New Zealand, The New Zealand Board of Science and Art has issued its Manual No. 5, being Part 11. of “Wild Life in New Zealand’’ —a title of jolly ambiguity—on Introduced Birds and Fishes. It has been written by the Hon. G. M. Thomson, M.L.C., F.L.S., F.N.Z. Inst., whose work on the natural history of New Zealand has a world-wide reputation. It is illustrated with very clear photographs of birds and fishes. The book is published by the Government Printing Oflice in paper covers at 5/and cloth covers at 8/-. Our copy rrom the Department of Internal Affairs. “The Snow-white Crane” Accounts of Royal tours are usually either sycophantic gush or bald narrations of appalling ceremonials In small country towns. Not so “The Royal Embassy,” by lan F. M. Lucas, Reuter’s correspondent on the world tour of the Duke and Duchess of York. The author contrives to paint a picture of every land he saw on this fascinating journey and his descriptions of Jamaica, the Marquesas, Fiji and Mauritius will stand on their merits apart from the interest of the Ducal visit. Mr. Lucas seems to have been particularly impressed with New Zealand and the New Zealanders. He gives an excellent account of the Royal party’s arrival in Auckland and of the wonderful children’s demonstration at the Domain —“one of the outstanding events of the whole tour.” The healthy youngsters of the Dominion made a “big hit” with the visitors: Surely no country can boast of such a profusion of healthy children [writes Mr. Lucas]. Everywhere we went in New Zealand there were happy throngs of happy sun-tanned youngsters and the vigour oi their youthful lungs will ring in one’s ears; for ever. As town after town produced its quota of bonnie kiddies some members of the Royal party began to grow incredulous and Joking questions were asked as to whether children were rushed from one place to another which the Duke and Duchess visited, in the same way as the police. , , , , . . The Mayor of Christchurch (which

city, by the way, is credited with | “a palatial railway station’') seems to j have made his presence felt; the author devotes two whole paragraphs to the Rev. J. K. Archer. The book is well illustrated. Here and there small errors have crept in (they never run, do they?) Kororareka, for instance, appears as Kororateka and Lady Alice

Fergusson is styled Lady Fergussou. For the benefit of those who may wonder what relation the heading at the top of this review has to the context let us explain that “the snowwhite crane” was the poetic Maori title for the Royal Duke.

“The Royal Embassy.” Methuen and Co., Ltd., 36 Essex Street, London, W.C. Our copy direct from the publishers.