What’s New in Paper Jackets

BY the wealth of paper jackets available this month, it looks as though the British printers have made up lost ground after the big printing strike. Anyhow, Britain’s loss is our gain, because there is inexpensive reading for all tastes available in this lot from Pan and Fontana, now in the bookshops.

An interesting facet is the num ber of religious books which are now appearing in the cheaper editions. , Our copies are from William Collins (Overseas) Ltd., Sydney.

ISLAND IN THE SUN: Alex Waugh’s long, excellent novel of intrigue, social upheaval and love-lust (plus murder) on sun-drenched Santa Marta, in the

iribbean. It probes the complexes and nlbitions of people to whom the * jj l * the skin is more important than wealth power. A best seller, the book was ade Into a star-studded better-than nerage Cinemascope film. Englishman laugh was in Suva last year and there ts some squirming in places high and m at the thought that he might bring ie same glare of publicity on Fiji that -s Caribbean novel brought to Jamaica , d Bermuda. Like the non-existent Santa tarta and elsewhere. Fiji, too, must have ■; share of skeletons in the cupboards, n affaires d’amour, and Us behind-the senes scheming and machinations. (PAN 'THE CASE OF THE SULKY GIRL and HE D.A. BREAKS AN EGG, both by Earle .anley Gardner. Years ago, the author «s called to the Bar of California, at ie age of 22, and he showed signs of scorning one of the top trial lawyers • USA, but he threw up the practice or w in favour of writing about it. That’s Ihy his crime fiction has such a pro ■ssional touch. In “Sulky Girl”, Gardner s ,wyer-detective Perry Mason (with Della treet as his girl Friday) has a client who ants him to break her father’s will. Her mcle, the trustee, is murdered, making ie girl even more sulky when the police old her for the crime. But the courtroom rial begins, and Mason sorts it out. In he “D.A.”, Doug Selby, District Attorney f a small-time county, solves the who nd why of the killing of a redhead beautiful, of course). (GREAT PAN).

A Woman Of Bangkok, By Jack

ievnolds. Originally a hard cover under he title of “A Sort of Beauty’’, but with he sex-success of “A Woman of Berlin” nd other Woman of books, it acquired , new title and a new “come-on” coloured acket. A tale of a young Englishman ibsessed with Vilai, the Thai pick-up at i dance hall, who is crude, greedy and sxpensive. After 300 pages of bed-to-bed lescription, here, there and everywhere n Thailand, the Englishman is discarded or an American, and returns home to start life anew. (PAN GIANT).

The Epistle Of Paul To The

ROMANS, by C. H. Dodd. It has been said that few men ever swayed the religious opinions and the destinies of mankind so powerfully as did Paul of Farsus, the Apostle of Christianity. His Epistle to the Romans is regarded generally as the first great work of Christian theology. Professor Charles Dodd, an English classical scholar, herein writes a commentary and explanation of chapter, verse, line and word of the famous Epistle that makes it alive and understandable to the average layman. (FONTANA, black).

THE EYE OF LOVE, by Margery Sham.

Middle-aged Miranda foolishly invites her fiance’s past love, Delores, to a cocktail party. There, Harry’s eye of love trans forms the unglamorous Delores into his Spanish Rose, and only her responsive eye of love, too, could see in fat, blubbery Harry a shining bluff King Hal. Miss Sharp’s ironic wit has full play in this eccentric comedy. (FONTANA, yellow).

FIAMETTA, by Anne Duffield. The authoress is billed as the “Queen of Romantic Fiction”, and with this tale she adds another love-diamond to her tiara. To Fiametta, an Italian town, comes Fanny Durand trying to trace her half brother who had unaccountably dis appeared from the lakeside village. Also at Fiametta arrives Jack Morell, handsome stand-offish Englishman who sees in Fanny the image of the girl he loved and lost.

The result, as in all romantic fiction, is inevitable but their hand-in-hannd departure for England is not before Fanny learns what exactly happened to her un pleasant brother and why. (GREAT

Pan).

The Meaning Of Protestantism,

by James Nichols. In today’s world, “Protestant” has come to impiy dissent.

Tracing the historical and spiritual growth of the Protestant movement, this boon shows that its fundamental doctrine Is much more positive than a mere denial of the Pope’s spiritual authority. Nichols, a US Presbyterian Church historian, in dicates clearly how the Protestant differs in his approach to Christianity from the Roman Catholic. Whatever one s faith, this slim volume should stimulate dis cussion on the subject. (FONTANA, black).

SAD CYPRESS, by Agatha Christie. Did Elinor Carlisle poison her ex-friend and likely will-sharer. Mary Gerrard? Was Mary slain “by a fair cruel maid .

Hercule Poirot (Agatha Christie’s sharp eyed sleuth) didn’t think so and he proceeded to ferret out the truth. (FONTANA, yellow).

CHANNEL DASH, by Terence Robertson.

On February 12. 1942, in daylight, the German battleships “Sharnhorst and “Gneisenau” escaped from Brest, France, through the English Channel to German waters. The news, when released, stunned the British public even more than the fall of Singapore two days later—-people just couldn’t understand how the Nazi ships could dash practically unscathed through the Strait of Dover, through our waters, and get away with it. It turned out to be a story of muddled leadership at the top. Here is a gripping account of the 24 hours during which the battleships raced through the Channel, and of the sacrifice of Lt.-Commander Eugene Esmonde, RN Fleet Air Arm, who led a squadron of obsolete Swordfish biplanes in a hopeless attack on the enemy ships.

Edmonde was posthumously awarded a

Vc. (Great Pan).

RACHEL CADE, by Charles Mercer.

Rachel’s long missionary nursing stint In Belgian Congo is broken by a wartime plane crash that brought Paul Winton, American doctor in the RAF, to her village. Together they heal the sick — and together they count the stars. Finally, he returns to civilisation. His place is taken by a new-chum missionary, scared of Africa, who eventually finds himself and helps Rachel, too, to solve her problems (including the Winton son). (FONTANA, yellow, 5/-).

DEATH OF A MAN, by Lael Tucker Wertenbaker. The true, sensitive story, told by his wife. of how Charles Wertenbaker, a writer, faced up to the last 90 days of his life, when he learned he was afflicted with incurable cancer. A moving record of the triumph of a man s spirit over pain, a man who chose his own moment to die. (GREAT PAN).

Letters And Papers From Prison,

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ,’s a moving collection of writings of Bonhoeffer, who was persecuted and eventually hanged by the Nazis for being a religious and honest man. These papers were smuggled out of prison. The book hits you as did “The Diary of Anne Frank”. (FONTANA, black). . „ .

APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA is Cardinal Newman’s great classic in which he defends his spiritual and intellectual integrity from an attack. The book was first published in 1864. Cardinal Newman died in 1890. (FONTANA, black, 5/-)

The Four Just Men, By Edgar

Wallace. One would expect that most people by now must have read Wallace s famous thriller of the four men dedicated to preventing injustice, but no doubt there will always be new readers for every thing. They could do worse. (GREAT

Pan).

(Australian Prices; Great Pan 3/9; Pan Giant 5/-; Pan Major 7/6. Fontana 3/9, except where otherwise marked).