...With... BOOK and VERSE

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 1, 17 July 1931, Unnumbered Page

...With... BOOK and VERSE

By .

John

O'Dreams

Miss MARY GRACE ASHTON, who has brought out a book called ¢"The Lonely Journey," has written four or five novels although she is still in te early twenties. She was seventeen when her first book, "Race," appeared. Miss Ashton was born in Cairo, and claims descent from John Bunyan. * * * ‘A. TURKISH girl’s personal recollections of life in her own country from the days of Abdul Hamid to the present time are set forth in "Unveiled," by Selma Ekrem. The writer’s family was of the official class, so that we have glimpses of the xervous strain imposed by thé Yildiz despotism, and vivid impreSsions of: the convulsive change to the Young Turk regime, The narrative takes us to Jerusalem, with its turbulent Christian rivalries, "and there are near views of the Balkan Wari of Consantinople during the Great War, and of the eventual Turkish recovery. It is all effectively written, and the description of Palestine in the chaos produced by the revolution of 1908 will stick to the memory. s * * ‘ey "Renee Nere" (La Vagabonde), by Colette, attention is held by the writer’s deft, sure touch, and clear etching of the characters. We are given a picture of the Paris of cafeschantant and theatres, and there is a fascinating study of Renee herself and her fellow-artistes, This arresting work of the much-discussed French authoress is entirely free from the atmosphere that some readers of her earlier books found repellent. One admires a great deal the excellent trans. PSntion of Charlotte Remfry-Kidd, and closes the book sighing a little at the glimpse of a tender and brave woman’s heart. * * x 4 XCITEMENT begins in the first chapter of "’Vantage Striker," by Miss Helen Simpson. Lady Sarah is injudicious enough to accompany Der mot Boyne to a Whitechapel fight, where not all the fighting is confined to the ring. We go further west and meet Cabinet Ministers, fashionable doctors, and the lords of the lawntennis world, among whom Dermot * holds a high place.’ Then comes the murder of the Prime Minister and Dermot’s arrest, and Dr. Springfellow’s curious behaviour-and quite a. lot more. This is a joyous book which is partly a comedy and partly a thriller, witty and satirical, aud wholly to be recommended,

IX "(he Five Wundred Best English. Letters," conipiled and with an introduction by the first Harl of Birkenhead; ave included extremely interesting examples of the epistolary art, written by representative men and women in past centuries. There are typical examples from the pen of fame vus*" letter-writers-VWalpole, Lamb, Garlyle. We find here Lord Balfour's famous note written on behalf of the British Government to the French AnbDassador in 1922. A missive from a child to "Dear Mama" begins, "I am sorry for touching that stinking litile cat.’? Models of brevity intitigue; for example, a typical communication from a schoolboy to his parent as follows: "3.0.8, L.58.D., R.S.V.P." Crowned heads are represented in this catholic collection, and letters from Byron and Smollett and Coleridge; the domirant feature being variety aid an intimate yevelation of other days and other ways.