When Bombers Came Winging Over England

Radio Record, Volume XII, Issue 30, 6 January 1939, Page 12

When Bombers Came Winging Over England

Grim Warnings From Two Novelists

With the world still trembling from the after-effects of Demoeracy’s Black Munich, it is perhaps natural that the times should be aioe in the literature of the ay. I have just received two books from London Gealing with a probable, and not-too-distant, international eruption. Bodies, according to surgeons, are often improved by cuiting. Similarly with books, as many editors will agree. "Chaos" is a case in point. A blve pencil would have been good for it. There are too many unnecessary inclusions, too many loose ends, imparting an unevenness in continuity. This is without doubt an ungracious attitude for a reviewer who was grimly fascinated by Shaw Desmond’s 474 pages of "Chaos." Desmond goes to considerable _trouble to establish his characters, only to dwarf them with the immenseness of his canvas until they become an annoying intrusion. He depicts a gigantie torchlight procession in the Unter der Linden. His Excellency the German Chancellor, flanked by the Ministers of "War and Propaganda, is marching ‘at the head of a grey host of jackbooted Heil-men. A rifle-shot cracks out. Der Reich-Fuehrer falls deadshot through the eye, That is the overture to an officially undeclared war. CGhaos versus Civilisation, with everybody on the side of Chaos no matter what side they took. An International dog-fight, ‘in which no one quite knows why they’re fighting, or for and against whom Against this demoniac backdrop Desmond places his characters, dear stolid English amateurs, safe in their belief that, after all, God is an Englishman and that no nation would disobey their rules. The first air raid on London, soon to be followed with relentless monotony, by many more, shakes this belief. World-wide civil war and revolution is the death rattle of civilisation and Desmond leaves us with the consoling thought that civilisation makes a bheautiful corpse.

Despite the brutal realism of this book, one has’ the feeling that it is all a macabre nightmare and that soon one shall wake up and find it so. : in Like Mood RELATED in mood to "Chaos," . John Connell’s book, "To-mor-row We Shall be Free," attacks the subject of the coming mass annihilation in a more sympathetic manner. . His language is easy, crisp and vivid; his descriptions sensitive and his construction smooth. His characters are the ordinary, everyday people that you and I know, The great show human flashes of. meanness-the mean reveal unex‘pected moments‘ of greatness; and yet you will probably be shocked. The scene opens in peaceful, rural England on a week-end of tremendous moment-Europe has reached a crisis and war is imminent. At the Big Hous. the guests are assembling for one of Lady Ruysdene’s famous house parties. Against the. impending doom of war we see the guests up at the Big House and the entire community carrying on the "Business as usual" tradition. On Sunday-morning church, the conventional funch and in the peace of the evening the bombers come. No words of mine can describe the compelling sincerity of this-hook-the polished style and the forceful ‘message. And the finale: As he spoke, there sounded far away, the first thin hum of engines, steadily and slowly insistent as drums beating. Then the searchlights came, the long, beams flashing and whirling, so bright that they seemed, in the eyes of those who watched, te dim the remote glory of the stars. Is this our heritage? Is this to te our destiny?

JJUSTIN

POWER,

Junr.

["Chaos." Shaw Desmond. Hutchin. son, London. Our copy from the publishers.] {"To-morrow We Shali Be Free.’ John Connell. Gassell, London. Our eopy from the publishers.?