Our Fortnightly Book Review

Radio Record, Volume V, Issue 9, 11 September 1931, Unnumbered Page

Our Fortnightly Book Review

DOWN THE SKY

By

E. V.

Lucas

"THOSE wlio read "Windfall’s Eve," and rejoiced in its" wif; humour and. tenderness, will like to renew acquaintance with the chivalrous Richard, his inamorata the attractive Jenny, Posy Crystal and her errant fiance. These appear again and their doings are chronicled ‘with: ‘freshness and charm in "Down the Sky," the apt and arresting title of "Mr: A. V.. Lucas’s latest contribution to belles lettres. By no means attaining the stature of a novel, and not altogether in essay form, but something ofboth, the slim yolume is rather a running commentary of life in England and the Continent, with many fascinating digressions jin-the true Lucasian manner. My own acquaintance with Mr. Lucas in lighter vein "began-how many years ago?-with "Listener’s Lure," which an. elderly. friend presented as suitable for budding intellectual curiosity. And very delightful I found its agreeable wit, sure touch, and gay acceptance of life’s little ironies, coupled with that vein of romance which this author is an adept at suggesting rather than describing. Since then allegiance -has"tiot .wavered, though sufferiig occasional diminution by reason of worship of diverse literary idols pursued with youth’s fanatical enthusiasm. And now it is certain that those going "down the sky," surveying sunset rathér than morning radianeé on life’s highway, will find renewed delight in Mr. Lucas’s wise humour, nonchalant savoir faire, and subtle, effective handling of blagueur and péseur-in the social cosmos. "vom the beginning, when the winner of the Windfall sweep discourages desire’-of the casual and provocative Mrs. Candover’,to start a restaurant, our ‘interest is intrigued. "It is extremely improbable,’ I said to Jenny, "that ‘you will ever be mixed up with an absurd shop called ‘The Chicken Pie.’ "Personally I would prefer another kind of place-a cosy little affair. to ‘be christened "The Old Flames,’ where friends of ‘mature years could loiter, with screens round all the tables. Not in the-least a place for the young; no music; no dancing; a total absence of the Little Brothers of the Ritz and their precocious girl friends wreathed in smoke." Later we have the comments of the sporting spinster who really did start a luncheon room: "If you want to retain any respect for your fellow-creatures, don’t run a restaurant. There are a few nice people who behave ‘themselves and get on with it, but others are holy terrors. Hating four sandwiches, and only paying for three, has become a new industry. And there was a woman avho insisted I should open an oyster bar. ‘If you’d do that,’ said she, ‘Td buy half a dozen every second Thursday on my way to Bridge’." Concerning the joys of motoring in Bngland; which he knows and loves so well, the author tells delightful tales of Kent and Sussex and Surrey, with descriptions of those old inns the charms of: which have had their loving scribes from Hazlitt onward. Of mine host at one of these happy havens we are told: "He was a retired music-hall singer, and his steady tipple "was gin and water. His opinion was there never had: been, never would ‘be anyone like Dan Leno. ‘Lots of us could be -funny, but he was fun itself. Poor Dan, he had to pay for it, as they tell me genius always must’.’" And by way of contrast there is an encounter with an old clergyman, very desolate and lonely because of the recent death of his wife, but able to smile over a. letter of condolence received from a young man, _ formerly a member of his flock: "I was grieved to hear of the death of your wife. I can hardly be said to know her as well as.you did, as I only met her twice, but I have recently lost my own great-grandmother and thus ean enter into your feelings." On matrimony Mr. Lucas, by his protagonist -the: delightful Richard, remarks: "The divorce laws are so busy worrying about infidelity that they take tio account of the real snags in the stream ‘of matrimony. Infidelity, before it is discovered, can run concurrently with assiduous attention and solicitude, but other impediments to sympathy and good fellowship’ obtrude themsélves and are ceaselessly exasperating, Two, friends of mine parted because of the opening or shutting of windows. ' Tod many women have a deplorible passion for fresh air, and this one’s désire: amounted ‘to mania, he husband has now returned to his air-tight London flat, and the wife _ to. a-house in the country where such Visitors as. have the hardihood t¢