What’s New in Paper Backs

back editions are becoming

more varied, gaudier, brighter

and are coming along in increas g numbers than ever. It’s a oosey reader who can’t get suited r his 3/9 these days, and the time gms to be closing when books —or

hter grade fiction, anyhow—will

straight into paper backs with t the gesture of the initial bound

ition ’ -14.

Here are some that came in last mth: TRST OVERLAND, by Tim Slessor. ■ryone with a spark of adventure wants do something like this, at some time their lives—drive a Land-Rover over d from London to Singapore. But - d 0 it. In this expedition there ually were two Land-Rovers and six mg men from Oxford and Cambridge iversities. The expedition took them months and 32,000 miles—because once ring got to Singapore they did what adventurers would have done —they ned around and drove right back to idon. heir route took them across Europe Turkey, across Persia to India and r the foothills of the Himalayas down ough Burma and Thailand to Malaya [ Singapore. Their return trip, given y in brief summary as an appendix to book, was an ingenious system of >-frogging. Oxford, spent a few weeks survey and resrearch here, while Cam- Ige drove on to there; then Cambridge ;mbarked to do a bit of the same where while Oxford caught up by •e orthodox transportation and took r the driving from Cambridge for ther few weeks. (Australian price, ).

EVIATHAN, by Warren Tute. The y of the most gigantic liner ever iched. A floating palace in peace e, when war came it became a troop > and Number One target for every mat in the Atlantic. This could have i the story of one of the Queens —but Isn’t. (Australian price, 5/-).

DMETHING WRONG, by Ernest Borne i. The place of jazz in the American of life shouldn’t be under-estimated it shouldn’t be surprising to find the > of this suspense thriller not only a clarinet player (or the player of a clarinet) but a successful business i—the manufacturer of mouthpieces, plastic kind, for wind instruments — the kind you call for when arrested, rything should have been roses for e Sommerville and his wife, but some was trying to drive them nuts and very nearly they succeeded is what book is about. (Australian price, 00 HOT TO HANDLE, by Patrick vart, but based on a film (starring ae Mansfield) of the same name. The y of the Soho strip joints where lagers and suburban housewives earn 1 money by taking off their clothes the entertainment of the men omers. (Australian price, 3/9).

E»YCATCHER 3, by Lt.-Col. Oreste ;o. Anyone who has looked at TV in tralia or UK will probably know the ycatcher” series based on the life Colonel Pinto and starring Bernard lard. This book is written by Pinto

himself, includes some of the incidents told on TV but gives also a brief outline of Pinto s early life. He is regarded as perhaps the world’s greatest expert on security and his early life and background played a great part in this.

Although a Dutchman, he has lived about two-thirds of his life in England. He attended the Sorbonne before World War I and was, at 20, invited to attach himself to the French Deuxieme Bureau the French equivalent of Britain’s MIS. Like many of his countrymen, he is a gifted linguist. He is married to an Englishwoman and at the outbreak of WnrM War I and again at the outbreak of World War II he was living in England. (Australian price 3/9) * —, MURDER BY NEGLECT, by Elizabeth Jenkins. This crime story was first published back in 1934—but the date doesn’t matter, anyhow, as the action takes place about (50 years before that, evidently to give more atmosphere to the “black

and hideous” outrage that was perpetra ted against poor Harriet. (Australian price, 3/9).

Tarzan’S Quest And Tarzan

AND THE COLDER LION, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. These were written way back in the 1920’s and 1930’s before Africa got nationalism. The things Burroughs conjured up—cannibals, fierce man-eating beasts, pagan rites and white girls in terrible predicaments—are tame com pared to what’s really happening in Africa today. (Australian price, 3/9).

TEXAS RIFLES, by Elmer Kelton. The Texas Mounted Rifles were something like the Canadian Mounties, only in Texas, and about 100 years ago. And, of course, this story is of a time before the Americans saw the light and when they believed that the only good Indian was a dead one. A beautiful white girl and, according to the cover, some shapely Comanche ones, provide the frills. (Aus tralian price, 3/9). (Over)

The Bushwhackers, By Frank

ruber. This is a gory incident out of te American Civil War and how it re ;ted on the life on one citizen. The ushwhackers were Missouri irregulars— ro-Colt men, who rode with the reins ;tween their teeth so they could use gun with each hand. (Australian price, 9).

THE HARD BLUE SKY, by Shirley Ann rau. The people of the Isle aux Chiens f the Louisiana coast were Inbred, lusty id uninhibited but they seemed reason ily happy until young Annie Landry t her “need for a man” drive her off ie island. Then things began to happen.

Lustralian price, 5/-).

HURRICANE, by Charles Nordhoff and imes Norman Hall. This was written a time when the authors, both now sad, were at the height of their fame portrayers of the Pacific scene. The ►vel contains a classic account of what hurricane can do to a Pacific Island, mstralian price, 3/9).

BARABBAS, by Par Lagerkvist, who ceived the 1951 Nobel Prize for Litera re for it. Today it might have been id of Barabbas that he had a guilt mplex. In the days immediately after e crucifixion of Christ, he was re dded as a hardened criminal who metheless felt called on to make a mis lided attempt to further the cause of e Master. (Australian price, 3/9).

TEA AT SHADOW CREEK, by Geoffrey ►tterell. As we understand it, the ithor was sent out from England to istralia to write a novel —Australia ing fashionable just now. His hero, larlie Anderson, finds himself a place the outback and he also finds himself lite a parcel of women —young and rich, autiful but poor, foreign and exciting, id English and "reserved”. All of rich seems to prove that the statistics ■ when they say that there are about '2 men to every 5 women in Australia, ther that, or Charlie was a lot luckier an most migrants who complain that ey can’t get any woman at all. (Aus ilian price, 3/9), (ALL THE ABOVE ARE IN THE FOUR iUARE SERIES. Our copies from Wm. jinemann, Ltd., Sydney.)

The following books have come to us from Wm. Collins (Overseas) Ltd., Sydney.

The Called And The Chosen, By

Monica Baldwin. This is not a sequel to “I Jump Over the Wall”—that was fact while this is fiction and the author takes great pains to emphasise the fact.

Nonetheless, we can’t imagine that it is on the list of required reading for Roman Catholics. Torn between the normal wants and desires of a young woman and the surrender demanded by her vows, Sister Ursula pours out her doubts and fears in her diary. (In case you have forgotten, the author—a relative of a late Prime Minister of the UK—also was onoe a member of a closed religious order. She left it during the

War). (Pan Giant).

THE FORGER, by Edgar Wallace. They call him the "immortal” Edgar Wallace— and he’d need to be. This thriller was

first published in 1927. Jane Leith married Peter Clifton because her Daddy told her to, but soon she was wonder ing if she had got into the clutches of a master criminal or just a maniac.

(Great Pan).

HORROR STORIES. Selected by Herbert van Thai. Fifteen frightening tales dis tilled from the gruesome, the macabre and the diabolic. (It says so on the cover). Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe and H. G. Wells are amongst the contributors. (PAN GIANT).

Partners In Adventure. This Is

a Pan Original by Derek Ingram, night editor of the London “Daily Mail”, who does not waste time regarding the old British Empire as a spent force but is convinced that our Commonwealth of Nations can be a great adventure and of profound value to the rest of the world.

It is a challenging survey of inter- Commonwealth relations, pulling no punches for what he thinks are past mistakes, and being quite specific about how we should proceed in the future.

You don’t have to agree with him in every respect but you can applaud his attempt to tear away some of the silliest misconceptions. Most "Colonials”, of whom there are more in the UK now at any given time than at any other period in history, will applaud his con tention that people in the UK know less about the Commonwealth than the other people in it. The average Englishman is capable of having recurring nightmares about the flood of negroes coming in from the West Indies, but otherwise he could not care less about his cousins from overseas.

As Ingram says, Australians often find that all that is known about their country is that its people are descended from convicts (or indeed are convicts), and that Captain Cook landed there.

He thinks that a lot more money than the £BO,OOO allowed the Commonwealth Relations Office for publicity in 1959-60, might do the trick. Maybe. But even that doesn’t help with people who shut their minds to information. (GREAT PAN). (Over)

AST SEEN WEARING, by Hillary agh. An 18-year-old freshman at a ■s college in Bristol, Mass., dis ears without reason or trace and this ightforward story of police efforts to out how and why, has been claimed be the whodunnit with everything: >ence, shocks, false alarms, good ogue— and convincing. Try it for and see. (GREAT PAN).

HEY CAME TO CORDURA, by Glendon rthout. The now famous novel of incident following the American itive Expedition into Mexico in 1916. vas made into a movie a couple of ■s ago and starred Gary Cooper, Rita worth, Van Heflin, Richard Conte and Hunter. (GREAT PAN).

Dw To Avoid Matrimony, By

ild Froy. A funny book about a ly subject. A cad’s eye view, they of debs, show girls, blondes and :r types. Instruction that tells rogue es how to swallow the bait without ing hooked and still get what they t. Illustrated. And how. (GREAT D.

IDNIGHT LANCE, by William mmond. Another Pan Original based the movie starring Rex Harrison as husband, and Doris Day as hi§ rican bride who was driven almost the brink, by a killer who made telephone an instrument of terror.

Eat Pan).

IE JURYMAN, by Donald MacKenzie. only chance for Sullivan was if one he 12 jurors in the Old Bailey court a bad guilt of his own and could ?ot at through blackmail, or bought, linkable in England? Perhaps—but le made the attempt. (GREAT PAN). (Over)

THE CAVALIER’S CUP, by Carter ckson. “One of the Big Five detective >ry writers”. (Who are the other ur?) Carter has his pet sleuth, Sir mry Merrivale, going through his paces ring to find out why someone didn’t >al the cup. (GREAT PAN).

OPERATOR, by Charles Williams. A riller in the American manner. Crime d dames and sex and smart operators, t the Manchester “Evening News” viewer liked it. Why shouldn’t you?

Reat Pan).

IHE MURDERER IS A FOX, by Ellery leen. Davy inherited his tendency vards killing wives. His father had led his, so why shouldn’t he do the me? That’s what he asked Ellery icen who had the job of straightening all out.

Ihe Pan Book Of Card Games,

Hubert Phillips. You’ll find every rd game from contract bridge to 28 rieties of Patience in this book. Over 1 pages of solid information. (FAN

Ant).

Rhe Case Of The Angry Mourner,

Erie Stanley Gardner. A playboy is irdered in his lakeside cabin and two men—his girl friend and his mother — j desperately in need of Perry Mason’s

Ip. (Great Pan).

50PHIE, by Geoffrey Wfcgner. An itorical novel of how a London nggler’s daughter became a power ilnd the throne of France —until she •reached herself. The novel is historical fact and the authentic, if scandals of the time. (GREAT N).

SEIDMAN & SON, by Elick Moll. A novel with a gimmick. Supposedly written first person by a Seventh Avenue dress manufacturer who has a heart of gold under a piquant exterior, GREAT PAN).

Tales Of Mystery And Imagina

TION. Famous 10 stories by Edgar Allan Poe, the fellow who was born a few generations too soon. He would have been a cinch as a writer for the TV series called “The Twilight Zone”.

(Great Pan).

A BOOK OF WIT AND HUMOUR. A collection of pieces chosen by Michael Barsley. Artists include Ronald Searle and Osbert Lancaster; authors include A.

P. Herbert, A. A. Milne, Stephen Potter and Eric Linklater. Barsley provides a “profile” with each contributor—and this helps. (GREAT PAN). (Great Pans, 3/9 Aust. Pan Giants, 5/-.)