New Books From Two Publishing Houses

Radio Record, Volume VIII, Issue 44, 10 May 1935, Page 22

New Books From Two Publishing Houses

Here is comment on a few new and promising publications from two of the leading nglish publishers. Methuen and the Bodley Head :- TWENTY-FIVE YEARS A KING. Mr. John Drinkwater’s book gives in compact form a survey of the King’s reign. His Majesty’s activities are considered i in relation to varjous aspects of national ‘life, politics, art, industrial and mechanical evolution, sport, and State ceremony. These considerations are based on principles defined in the firsr chapter of the book, which discusses th» whole question of constitutional monarchy in Bngland and the particular distinetion that his Majesty has lent to this form of government. in our democratic

days.-

-(Methuen.)

LUST FOR LIFE ‘This is the_life-story of the painter Vineent Van Gogh-a story of incessant

conflict with poverty, discouragement and ill-health. No painter has been more ruthlessly driven by the creative force, or more isolated by it from almost all ordinary sources of human happiness, anil this violent, vivid, and tormented life makes a novel of extraordinary vitality. -(The Bodley Head.) DICKENS This new book is based on a series of lectures which Andre Maurois, the author, delivered in Paris on the life and work of Dickens, Though many English evitices, among them Mr, G. K. Chesterton, had found the work remarkably interesting, the author had decided not to publish it in Bnglish until recent books en Dickens had led him to revise his original text in the light of the new (inecuments which had appeared-(The 3odley Tead). , GROWING OPINIONS This collection, edited by Alan Campbell Johnson, of the views of British youth on subjects with which it is urgently concerned is of absorbing’ interest. Familiar names oceur in the list of contributors: David Huxley, grandson of one great scientist and half-brother of another, is responsible for "Youth and literary Appreciation’; Angela Milne. niece of A, A. Milne, nrovides a study of the family; Michael Matthews, son of-~ the new Dean of St. Paul’s, in "Youth and Musie," denounces the sterility of modern musical modes and the influence of wireless; Sally Graves, a member of the well-known = literary family, writes with style and knowledge. of: Ireland, while Crystal Herbert, daughter of A. P. Herbert shows distinct traces of paternal influence in her outspoken comments on the tyrannical demands of Fashion.(Methuen), : PRIVATE WORLDS Miss. Phyllis Bottome has given her new novel the unusual setting of a large: hospital in the Midlands. ‘The principal characters are a group of young psychiatrists attached to the hospital. and plot of great originality is evolved from their relations with each other. subtly influenced and complicated by the erratic destinies of some of their patients -(The Bodley Head). THEATRE GUYED A. EB. Wilson. dramatic eritic of "The Star? (London) is-in a-light and. irresponsible mood in this highbrow book for lowbrows. Surveying the contemporary stage, he pokes fun at its fads and conventions, and at the vogues that seize it. Virst-nights, audiences, musical comedy, opera, foreign plays, the "intellectual" drama, are among the material for his parody and humour, with which the clever drawings of Tom Titt are per-

fectly 1n kceping:

-(Methuen).

AT 33 Richard Le Gallienne was one of that famous company of poets and writers who made literary history in the ’ninelies. lis daughter, Wva, struck out a different line for herself and took to the. stage at an early age. Educated chiefly in Paris she describes in "At 38" her childhood, her first attempts at acting. her contacts with Sarah Bernhardt anil Constance Collier, her holidays in her mother’s country, Denmark, and _ her work at Tree’s Academy.-(The Bodley Head).