...With... BOOK and VERSE

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 34, 6 March 1931, Unnumbered Page

...With... BOOK and VERSE

By

John

O'Dreams

Z "PITTLE Green Apples," by Mr. Geoffrey :Moss, is an interesting. por‘trayal Af an essentially ‘modern milieu | ) im wi{ch a young and ingenuous. Hugwith fate. He falls \on ‘evil: days in a, Continental resort, | whither he goes to take up. an. apparently desirable. position as secretary .of a golf club, On. his arrival he is the | possessor of fifty .pounds, the clothes jhe ‘stands up in, a knowledge. of games, ‘and’ his public school code. " But © the | { golf course, he discovers, ‘is still in the © | embryonic stage, the company. which || engaged him; proves a fraudulent. conj,cern, and: its director a plausible and 4 ‘unmitigated. scamp:. Very. soon the \ youthful Oxford blue finds himself left ( in the-lurech, his money goes on neces- , sities, his pathetic lusion. of running ‘fa good: golf club is shattered, and his jstandards in danger of being sapped by "deeadent propaganda of- Continental { viff-raff. yonely, unhappy, not knowing where ‘ to turn, he finds himself in the toils | of 2°50-year-old cocotte, whose notori- | ous amours have: proved profitable. ) She,. finding the- guileless, lad ‘attrac~ ‘tive, heaps favours and dollars upon: \him, to his temporay undoing, For a: time he. drifts unhappily in ‘this state, .but eventually: escapes frem Hit, sand. goes. back gtimly to struggle ’ with unpropitious destiny. Gamely : he! does: his’ best, dines. off a cup, of ‘ coffee, twangs -one-stringed fiddle in a \ restaurant, dances with the patrons, t and, being young and meant for happiness, falls in love: with a frank,. sweet * Inglish girl. , Happiness looms in the’ offing; but once .more fate: queers his pitch, the ; past. intervenes, and snatches: peace ,and security from "Little Green Ap- : ples," whom we leave in. a. circus. tent, | twanging his gay guitar, and © still | struge? g,with pathetic endeavour, to . fit his Sxth form:code to the conditions ) induced by "the fell. elutch of circum- ' stance."

To those who appreciate a droll and diverting narrative, I recommend "Leave it to Susan," by K. R. G. Browne. This is an amusing hotch-potch of the adventures of a _hetereogeneous collection of people who for one night find themselves the guests in a conventional English country house. Here is modern youth, daring, destructive, and far from dull; an .alcoholic admiral, and his unwilling, highly mirth-provoking escapades; Wnglish-

women who are true to life; a Nrenchman who is excellent. Entertaining to a degree are the struggles of this foreigner with our vernacular; and even the most inveterate Mrs. Gummidge would smile on reading of the sports parade in which Monsieur Pepin and the butler reluctantly take part, with the frisky great Dane as runner-tp. The types are soundly envisaged, and the volume is: cordially recommended as an excellent remedy for the Drev ailing depression, _. aos. ~

R. ARCHIBALD’ MARSHALL, sometimes called the later-day Trollope, has recently published a tale of the everyday life of people in English country houses. ‘The fortunes of two groups are followed in Mr. Marshall’s characteristically * vivacious fashion through three generations, the tale taking its Jeisurely course from the far-back sixties down to the year of the Armistice. . * 1 ; e E lJearn from a contributor to the "Sunday Times" that Mr. Arthur Symons, penetrating and accomplished student of letters, who links ‘our own time with the later Victorian era, has just published a book on one of the most distinctive writers of that period. Forty-four years: ago’ Mr. Symons opened his literary career with a study of Browning; now he carries on with a treatise on the drt and .thought of Osear Wilde. ‘The writer. quotes Hdmund.Gosse’s conversation with a disjinguished Frenchman of. letters. "Phere are iwo of your modern authors," said the eminent foreigner, "of whom I have heard much. One is Alkeen, whose works I have still to read.. The other, whom I greatly admire, is Skarvildy." It took Gosse some time to discover that the writers. referred to were Hall Caine and Oscar Wilde!