THE NEW BOOKS

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19887, 16 May 1936, Page 20 (Supplement)

THE NEW BOOKS

THE DEMI-WIDOW. Book by Film Star. “ The Deml-Widow". By Mary Piokford. (Methven.) Mary Pickford has been loved as no other star of the screen ever has been or ever -will be. Now she has turned her gifted talents to writing. Her message of faith and optimism, “Why Not Try God?” has been immensely popular. "The Deml-Widow” Is her first novel, a romantio love story, as modern as Mary Pickford herself. The author has chosen the theatre for the background of her 'book—a Parisian theatre. She has been thoroughly cosmopolitan in her choioe of characters. The lovely heroine, born in California, has grown up in a convent sohool in France. The handsome young hero hails from the Argentine; the publioity director, from Hollywood; the impassioned suitor, from Russia; It is an exoitlng situation. Against the background of fashionable Paris, with its women in beautiful gowns, gorgeous Jewels, luxurious motor-cars, moves a young girl-widow determined to keep body and soul together and bring up her baby in happy surroundings. Underneath all the romanoe and drama of the plot, there is a sincerity, a beauty of spirit that are the familiar marks of the author. “THE PAPUAN.” New Zealander 9 s Novel. AN ADVENTUROUS CAREER. Another New Zealand author to achieve success is Monte Holcroft, of Christchurch. His fourth novel “ The Papuan,” has been accepted for serial publication in The BulletinIn announcing that the first Instalment of the novel will appear shortly, The Bulletin states: “ Mr Holcroft is 33 years old and was bom at Ranglora. Educated at the Christchurch Boys’ High School, he was out in the world at 16, working on farms and in threshing mills. Before he was out of his teens he crossed the Tasman and spent a period as a dockyard clerk in Sydney. He next leased 140 acres of poor land near Ngwra, New South Wales, and managed to last six months—mainly on a diet of rabbits. Then followed a retreat to Sydney and

AFRICA RE-DISCOVERED. Romance and Adventure. AN AGE THAT IS PASSING. “ High Street Africa." By Henry Birch Reynardson. (Blackwood-) I The writer’s aim, that of re-discov- [ ering and recording the old Africa bej fore It is finally buried under invading I modernism, is not impaired by the fact i that he notes, and gives his impressions of, the “ show places ” which are increasingly attracting the invading tourist. These, however, appear as knots on a ribbon, the main fibre of which is a wholesome outlook on everything—scenic, human, even animal—that for the writer, and inevitably for the reader, makes the old, attractive, and now fast disappearing Africa. An immense land of romance and adventure has given up its last secrets. Explorer, voortrekker, professional elephant-hunter, Selous, Stigand, Lugard, passed insensibly into Rhodes, Beit, Kruger, Delamere, Botha, and Smuts. The age of giants is passing to that of machinery, quick travel, and sophistication; and It is strictly in keeping with the rapid change that the author should have used a car, however anolent and decrepit, as a means by which to record the seven thousand miles of his entertaining Odyssey, and still to be able to show us that “romance bring* up the 9.15.”

one Job after another—timberyard worker, goods porter and estateagent’s clerk among them. About this time he began to write. The now defunct Australia, a magazine run by Fred Davison, father of Frank Dalby Davison, brought his first short story, and The Bulletin and other papers gave him cheques for later efforts. Having found his wings as a writer he returned to New Zealand as subeditor of the Weekly Press. When the Weekly Press snuffed out he went abroad. He saw a good deal of England, France and North Africa. He had a taste of the desert in Southern Tunisia and sold fiction to various English magazines. Returning to New Zealand, he has since lived on the proceeds of authorship- “ The Papuan” is his fourth novel, the other three, whioh have enjoyed good sales, being “ Beyond the Breakers,” “ The Flameless Fire,” and “ Brazilian Daughter.”