This Month’s New Reading

Reviews By Judy Tudor

Slo Place To Boil

The Billy

r OU can’t camp in England,” friends told Gwen (“Blue Hills”) Meredith and husband, sworth Harrison. Nonetheless, adventurers packed a black )-can and a couple of sleeping 3 in with the evening gowns and suit of tails and (like another tralian) determined to “give it o.” i England, in spite of every ouragement they bought a tent, a station-wagon. But the first ; they camped was in South isington, and it came after an ant night out. During the ivities someone announced that eavy fog was descending on the hern part of London. It did not ster with these Australians —until it 2 am when they tried to back to South Kensington where r had parked the station-wagon y were living in Surrey). The -driver, by some extra sense, (aged to find the right street and parked wagon—but when the edith-Harrisons tried to drive iugh the cotton-wool, in what i believed to be the correct ction of Surrey, they quickly id it impossible. So, in full ling regalia, they did the ible thing, got out the sleeping > and crawled in. ilk-men wakened them next ning. They staggered to the 'est street sign, and were pleased lote that they had managed to ;e their camping debut in land at a “good address”—on right side of the Park! lis is a fair sample of Inns and ?, a light-hearted account of the els of two Australians in search campine: spots, in search of ng (which never seemed to e) and in search of all those gs colonials seek in the Mother iey did occasionally manage to a campinsr spot—but, generally, is left with the impression that cannot camp in England. Not i any ease or degree of comfort, low. i amusing and informative book ill those who contemplate a tour Britain —pointed remarks bv edith-Harrison on the foibles of Britisher, plus good humour and t of information.

'ter the regulation Continental , the couple returned to Aus a by a somewhat unusual route the second part of the book is )ted to their adventures on the land route through Eastern )pe, down through Jugoslavia, see. Turkey, Beirut, Damascus Baghdad, and by ship down the ;ian Gulf to Karachi and ibay. They had expected to id some time in India, but at

Bombay came the sudden longing for the smell of “hot sun on fallen gum leaves and dried out grass.”

They left, at a half-day’s notice for Sydney, and home. (Published by Angus and Robertson.

Ltd.. Sydney. Australian price. 18/9/

Goings-On At The

Schloss

THE author of The Regent’s Candlesticks is Elizabeth Kyle, and she has a long list of light novels to her credit. But she appears to have become tired of this one before she finished it.

The novel starts out with fair enough promise but the actions of the characters towards its end will stretch the credulity of the most amiable reader.

When Neil Ormond was billeted with the family of Count von Hegendorn near Hanover in 1946. he sub-consciously fell in love with teen-age Julie. Eight years later he returns to the Schloss Hegen dorn, commissioned by his uncle to buy, if he can, the candlesticks which once belonged to George TV of England and Hanover, and 'which later found their way into the possession of the von Hegendoms.

When he returns to the Schloss.

Neil finds that Julie is no longer there and is told at first that she is dead. There follows a lot of backing and filling and general hanky-panky on the part of the wicked Count, and the Count’s equally wicked and politically ambitious son; and a great deal of havering on the part of the old Countess.

Adding all these factors together, Neil’s suspicions are aroused and he sets out to solve the mystery of Julie, which he does about page 199. Whether the results justify the effort is a matter of individual opinion. There is a happy-ever after ending, (Published by Peter Davis. Ltd. Aus tralian price, 13/3.1

Disillusionment In

Formosa

THERE are two schools of thought concerning novels about China; either you like them; or you don’t. But even the most ardent admirer of the Chinese story (written by Westerners) must ad mit that all contain the same in gredients: grinding poverty, the poorness of the soil, the corrupt ness of all public life, the bestial cruelty of man to man, and man to woman, the rapaciousness of all soldiers; the ruthlessness of all War Lords: the slavish devotion to the family and the family gods.

To be sure, the hero is usually (God knows how) a gentle creature who keeps goldfinches or grass

hoppers or writes poetry, but the> overall impression is one of gloom and depression and if you belong to the Don’t category the result of reading too much of this litera ture is a pain like indigestion across one’s solar plexus.

However, with these reservations.

A Pail of Oysters (by Vern Sneider, who also wrote Teahouse of the August Moon ) is important enough to be read even by those who suffer from literary indigestion of the Chinese variety. It has all the general ingredients of the Oriental dish (as outlined above), poverty, prostitution, plundering soldiery and the rest, plus another —it all takes place on the island of Formosa under the aegis of Chiang Kai Shek’s National government — or Chiang’s Nationalist “Save the Country” Army.

Life, as depicted, is not less grim than life on the Mainland, and to Li Liu who is one of the central characters, life could not be grimmer if the soldiers who steal their food and beat them up were from Red China instead of from Chiang Kai Shek’s National army.

Li Liu does not write poetry or keep goldfinches—he tends " his family’s oyster beds on Formosan tidal flats.

The scene soon moves to Taipei, however, when Li Liu sets out to recover the family god which the soldiers have looted from his father’s house. There, briefly, his life becomes entangled with Precious Jade, who has been sold into a brothel, and her brother, and an American who is in Formosa to write a series of articles for his paper.

The only thing one can conclude after reading this book is that it is bad to have been born a Formosan under the Nationalist regime (“The Japanese were good men. It took the swine to teach us that. And to think we once welcomed these . . .”). And a bad thing to be born Chinese anywhere in China.

The business of high global stategy does not concern this story of human beings. Probably no one but the very naive expects that moral right or wrong is any longer a basis upon which military alliances are made. (Published by William Heinemann, Ltd.

Australian price. 15/6. >

If You Are Having

A Baby

AND now something a little more practical —The Parents’ Book —a Guide to Mothercraft, by Dr. Margaret Harper and Dr.

Kathleen Winning.

An experienced nursing Sister, whom we have consulted on this one, says: “An excellent book —as one might expect of anything which Dr. Winning has anything to do with. It is very up to date and treats the mother as an intelligent

person by telling her many things that most books of this type overlook. It briefly instructs a mother how to do the best for her baby from the moment she knows that pregnancy has occurred until the baby has become a toddler.

“The information given is based on the instruction that mothers should be given at Baby Health Centres in NSW—and can be highly recommened to all Islands mothers who are remote from these facilities.

The illustrations are excellent and should be exceedingly helpful to inexperienced mothers.”

So there we have it. We would like to add that there are chapters on prenatal preparation, bathing baby, natural and artificial feeding, weaning, feeding toddlers, care of the premature baby, caring for infants in hot weather —which should be of particular interest to mothers in the tropics—and much more.

Just for the record —Dr. Harper has been the author of earlier editions of the Parents’ Book. For this edition she has been joined bv Dr. Winning. Both these women have specialised in the care of mothers and babies and are honorary physicians at the Tresillian Mothercraft Homes in Sydney. (Published by Angus and Robertson, Australian price, 9/6.)

Regency Love

BACK with full quota of Regency bucks, dandies, Earls, Dukes, assorted noblemen, trembling females, pushing mamas and one high-spirited Lady-of-Rank (heroine), comes Georgette Heyer with Bath Tangle.

Miss Heyer’s Regency novels hold few surprises for her readers, but they are none the less satisfying fare for that. The strong, taciturn and aristocratic hero always wins tne high-spirited aristocratic lerome in the end; and there is much dashing about in post-chaises phaetons and curricles, if not on plain horses.

When Lord Spenborough died he left a young widow of about 20 i-anny; and a daughter of 26, the Lady Serena. Fanny was of the conventional type, and of “great sensibility.” Serena was a high spinted lass But my noble Lord fortnnp 6l^ fit t° tie up Serena’s ** f su . ch ., a wa y that she should get at it only with the K r ° val of the Marquis of Itothertwm whom she had, a short T„ b ' f The ladies take Ba t h > and although still m deep mourning, both become embrofled in affairs of the heart. ine Heyer writes excellent “° d a e ™ tbrillers as well as historical romances, but never mixes her * sit5 ity ‘ A top rankin S n a Re S e ncy setting with should te r goSd 0f characterisa M°n.

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