SOLDIERS' ANTHOLOGY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 16, Issue 402, 7 March 1947, Page 16

SOLDIERS' ANTHOLOGY

MIDDLE EAST ANTHOLOGY. Edited by John Waller and — de Mauny. London, Lindsay Dr

(Reviewed by

E. H.

McCormick

tion is timely. By now veterans of the Middle East theatre, settled-or caught-in the routine of civilian habits, can permit themselves the luxury of regret for the years spent in North Africa. In ‘retrospect the dangers and discomforts of that experience tend to give way before its more pleasurable memories. How direct and simple service life now seems, as compared with the complexities met with at home or in the office or in the shop! How agreeable, by contrast with Anglo-Saxon restraints, the freedom of an old and tolerant society -too old, too tolerant! And, amid the vagaries of a temperate climate, how desirable seems a place where weather does not exist, only for a great part of the year a succession of cloudless days! This anthology will, then, have an appeal for many who now turn back to the Middle East with feelings similar X appearance of this collec-

to those reserved in exile for home. Through its pages they will experience again the stir and glitter and fabulous contrasts of Cairo. They will see once more the inhuman landscapes of the desert and the kindlier Syrian hills. They will retaste the pleasures of leave in "Alex.," the abandon of the periodical "jag," and its morning-after remorse. They will recollect the close intimacies of service life, with their revelations of unsuspected virtues and frailties. But, it is necessary to add, the collection is not every reader’s glass of Stella. It will appeal less to "straight" beerdrinkers than to those who, like a character in one of the sketches, acquired a taste for wartime champagne, white wine and soda-water. Internal evidence and the appended biographical notes suggest that many of the contributors belonged to a small group thrown together in the great military base that was Cairo and celebrated in the last poem of the collection. "From Oxford to Cairo is a long way. ..." opens one of the stories. Not really so far, we comment, nor was Bloomsbury so remote from Cairo’s Garden City. The peculiar flavour of

New Writing rises strongly from the . pages of this anthology which might, in fact, have come out as a special enlarged number of that periodical. There are the familiar junks of raw experience, commonly termed "reportage," the curious mingling of cynicism with a kind of religious anti-fascism, the same juxtaposition (sometimes in one writer) of the dilettante and the moralist, with the same indications of haste and prematurity in some of the contributions; and this collection goes even further than its prototype in realising the international pretensions of New Writing: it includes work by an Egyptian, a Frenchman, a Pole, an Italian, a South African, a New Zealander, Erik de Mauny, who ig the co-editor and in himself a small league of nations-and representatives of most breeds from the United Kingdom. * * me HIS is perhaps only another way of saying that the selections bear upon them signs of the circumstances and time of their composition. As the editors have pointed out in their introduction, the Middle East in time of war was not (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) a good environment for writers, and it was perhaps easier to write about the background of war than of war itself. In spite of this, some of the best things in the collection are inspired by battle experiences: the description in J. W. Scott’s Pastorale of an incident at Sidi Gazal, Erik de Mauny’s memories of a field hospital in the desert, John Pudney’s simple and poignant Landscape: Western Desert, and Uys Krige’s The Taking of the Koppie. The prose piece 1 liked best of all, however, has no connection with war; it is The Postman Gets His Own Back, a farcical sketch in which ap Egyptian writer, Albert Cossery, illuminates one of those dark corners of Cairo that were "out of bounds" to allied soldiers in both a physical and a psychological sense, The only comparable talent in the collection, though it is of a different order, is that of G. S. Fraser, a fluent and uneven writer who may do something important when he acquires the power of self-criticism. The worst things included are three pieces of obvious satire by John Ropes; amusing enough when sung in wartime reviews, they are too feeble for publication between boards. But the editors were wise to include the bad with the good; had they been more exacting they would have been less true to the place and the time they have commemorated. KIWI MEETS GREEK KALIMERA KIWI. C. M. Wheeler. A. H. and A. W. Reed. HIS is a personal account of his own and his unit’s doings in Greece by an officer of the New Zealand Engineers. The author relates with scarcely flagging liveliness the strange experiences of this short campaign. At first the Sappers’ task was to build roads and bridges. Very soon it was to destroy them, hazardous work at any time and doubly so when carried out in frantic haste in the path of the advancing enemy. This book makes it plain that no demoralisation accompanied the retreat. Units kept themselves jntact to a remarkable extent after the abrupt disintegration of the Allied front. The narrative, like the events it describes, does at times become rather incoherent, and it is disappointing that the writer was not in a position to describe more clearly the destruction of the important bridge across the Corinth Canal. On the level of entertainment Mr. Wheeler’s account of people and places is humorous and briskly told. His attitude to the Greek people is wentots and understanding. A GOSSIP AT SEA IN THE WAKE. Gerald S. Doorly. Robertson and Mullens, Ltd., Melbourne. APTAIN DOORLY writes of his career in the Merchant Navy which led him from his birthplace in Trinidad to many far corners of the globe, including the Antarctic (he sailed in the Morning, relief ship to Scott’s first expedition). He had much experience of the New Zealand coast, and was wrecked in Dusky Sound. Incidentally, both he and his friend "Teddy" Evans (Admiral Sir Edward Evans of the Broke) found brides in this country. Also Captain Doorly skippered the troopships Navua and Aparima taking the First N.Z.E.F. overseas. This is a cheerful, garrulous book which will interest everyone who enjoys stories of the fortunes of war and

of life at sea.

David

Hall

PAGEANT OF EXPLORATION PACIFIC HORIZONS. By Christopher Lioyd. George Allen and Unwin, Lid. NTO this comparatively short volume Christopher Lloyd packs a comprehensive account of the voyages of discovery in the Pacific, from Magellan’s setting out in 1519 with his five "very old and patched ships" to Cook’s "I have now. done with the Southern Pacific Ocean and flatter myself that no one will think I have left it unexplored." The book makes a fine pageant: Magellan and Drake; Mendana sailing across the Pacific to the Solomons and reaching back after a fearful voyage, making a second voyage plus an unpleasant wife and dying off the Philippines; Quiros the devout, loyal Catholic who voyaged for the love of God and of souls and of discovery to the New Hebrides in 1606; the solid, unimaginative Dutchmen who explored as a commercial proposition and the buccaneers who sought gold and adventure; the colourful. Dampier rising from the deck of a pirate sloop to the quarter-deck of His Majesty’s ship, who by his writings put the Pacific on the map again; Anson’s squadron manned by "a poor detachment of decrepit and inferior invalids from Chelsea Hospital," and the almost incredible sufferings the crew of the shipwrecked Wage endured as told in the narrative of Byron’s grandfather "foul weather Jack"; the brave Carteret in the rotten Swallow rediscovering the Solomons; the charming and accomplished Bougainville; and Cook, the scientific explorer. The book is excellently written. The author has the great gift of compression while maintaining the vivid interest of the story. His small quotations are excellent and. illustrate his points admirably. On the one hand he gives us the grim humour of: "The 6th died Thomas Harvey, the Purser. This gentleman died a mere skeleton for want of Food, and was probably the first Purser, belonging to His Majesty’s Service, that ever perished with Hunger," and on the other the ecstasy of Quiros giving God all the glory and kissing the soil of the New Hebrides, "O Land! sought for so long, intended to be found by so many, and so desired of me!" The book will be of much interest to all who love the stories of exploration and adventure. A fine book to go into a school ,

iibrary.

O. E.

Burton

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ANTERBURY LAMBS. The first appearance of a self-styled "literary effort" printed at the Caxton Press on behalf of the Canterbury University College Literary Club-‘a group of people who have written some verse and prose and who now, meekly and candidly, suggest that you may be interested in reading it." THE CULTURE OF CARNATIONS AND SWEET PEAS. By E, O. Petersen. A. H. & A. W. Reed, Wellington. HIS is No, 15 in a Home Gardening series of booklets. The author devotes.rather more than half his space to the carnation, not because he considers the carnation a better flower than the sweet pea, but "for the reason that there is more to the growing of good carnations than of excellent sweet peas."