BRILLIANT DU MAURIERS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 26, Issue 663, 21 March 1952, Page 13

BRILLIANT DU MAURIERS

'T’S ONLY THE SISTER, by Angela Du Maurier; Peter Davies. English price, 12/6. "O be closely connected with the great is a responsibility, says Angela. du Maurier in her autobiography, and she herself was too timid to compete, for mediocrity was unknown among the du Mauriers. As a child she was indulged, and she continued to indulge herself as she grew up. It is pleasant to read of those gay and gallant Twenties when girls made the most of their newly. won (continued on next page) a a

Book Reviews (continued trom previous page)

freedom, and when money-even a little of it-would go a long way. The book sparkles with the brilliance of so many famous characters, and so mafiy dinners and parties, and balls and theatres and operas that, like Angela, the reader becomes dazzled as for a moment he shares their glittering world. The opening chapters of the book are smooth and sophisticated, but as Miss du Maurier becomes engrossed in her memories, time, place, and even the story become confused. Her style improves again, however, when she describes life in, Britain during the Second "World War. The reader is impressed by what these people can do in an emergency. Daphne du Maurier, for. instance, finds that a soldier husband, three children and writing Frenchman’s Creek _ keeps her fully occupied; while Angela tills the soil, helps at a children’s clinic, joins the Home Guard and takes. two | months off to write a novel which she has "mentally stacked by." This part of 'the book is illustrated with well-chosen | extracts from personal letters.

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