Across The Gibber Plains

A few women combine a life of adventure with great service to imanity. A tiny minority of these manage to record something of that e and amongst them is Elizabeth Burchill.

ISS BURCHILL has written two books— Labrador Memories and e recently, Innamincka. In chron ical order, that was putting the before the horse as her Inna cka experiences came years be she worked in Labrador, but two modest books do show the extremes to which a nursing er took this remarkable woman, ny resemblance between Inna :ka, 300 miles from the nearest lead in Central Australia, where summer temperature soars to 120 in the shade, and the frozen es of Labrador, is certainly not ;raphical. listorically, Innamincka is where Bourke and Wills trans-Australia dition ended tragically with the h of Bourke in December, 1860). stween and after her Innamincka Labrador adventures. Miss :hill has nursed in England, been ember of a medical unit caring refugee children in Spain during Civil War, served in the Aus m Army Nursing Service with 2nd AIF in Palestine and Egypt, a radio announcer in Victoria a Plunkett nurse in New Zealand. )resent she is in charge of the J Welfare Clinic at Thursday d. lamincka sits where the borders three Australian States meet, reds of miles from anywhere on ?are gibber-strewn plains of sand salt bush. In 1930-32, when beth Burchill and her companion, Currey, newly double-certificated ing Sister from Melbourne’s best itals, were the sole medical staff e Elizabeth Symon Nursing Home , it merited the name of “town”, addition to the Australian Inland ion nursing home, there was a e-station, a store and an hotel e famous bottle heap of “empties” ed an acre or more and was aony to the thirsts of passing ders. t the real reason for Inna ka’s existence was the station of ;ame name, separated from the by four miles of stock route hooper’s Creek. It had an area of '0 sq. miles, had been bought in by Sir Sidney Kidman for 000, and was only one of a string 1 stations that this extraordinary cter owned. Through them he ed his vast herds of cattle in a game of chess against the d’s biggest enemy—drought.

Today all that remains of In namincka is the station. The hospital, store, pub and police-station have all gone.

Miss Burchill’s story is not only of two youngsters on their first nurs ing assignment but of the Australian Inland Mission itself. From the con ception of a Presbyterian parson, the Rev. John Flynn, that the Inlanders should have health services, communi

cation with the outside world, educa tion and spiritual comfort when they wanted it, grew the AIM hospitals, the first pedal wireless communication between isolated stations and their bush centres, the Flying Doctor ser vices and the School of the Air. (INNAMINCKA. Published by Hodder and Stoughton Ltd. 18/9.)

Three ]l<»oks For

The Young

THREE excellent “young” novels have been issued by Macmillans this month. All are suitable for youngsters in the 12-years-old and

upwards group, by which time mos? children have developed some literary discrimination and can appreciate good writing and a story well told. T

Storm On Kildoney Is By

Meta Mayne Reid whose family hat lived in Northern Ireland for 25b years. She therefore is well equipped to write about the Atlantic tossed island of Kildoney and the advenn tures that befell Meg, Henrietta antr Toby during the summer (17/-) I

The Well-Wishers, By Ef

ward Eager. The same characters thas appeared in a previous book, Magi or Not?, return in this one, bin whether they are old friends or nob readers will be intrigued with the youngsters who had a wishing-wefe somewhere at the bottom of the gab den. Mystery and hilarity are equal! compounded and the amusing draw ings of N. M. Bodecker are ai added attraction. (15/6.)

Guardian Of Honour Is B(C

John Bancroft, who specialises iii books for the slightly older teen-ager Journalist James Steele is sent td France by his paper to investigafj the case of Raoul de la Paine whir has been charged with plotting again! the French Government. With him goes his young cousin, James, whir tells the story of how the newspaper man, after he and James have hair many adventures, proves the Frenclji man’s innocence. (20/6.)

What's New in Paper Back?

The Woman In The Bag?

SEAT, by Marguerite Steen, 1 slightly turgid triangular roman® between Ellen, her second husbani Paul, and her teenage daughter Lavinia. Paul was French —and yqo know what Frenchmen are. As Padr said, if it hadn’t been Lavinia, I would probably have been Mary 8) Tania. (Fontana).

Reflections On The Psalms]

Four other of Professor C. S. Lewtr books have been published in thri Fontana series on religion. In thjr particular book, he attacks the subp ject, so he says, as a Church of En®, land layman and relates the Psalmr against their triple background —the ancient Judaic religiipn thai produced them; the Christian era which gave them new meaning; anm the modern world. The Psalms, M says, were written by poets at manfri different dates, and as poems anm lyrics, with all the licence anm hyperbole that that literary form allows, they should be read. (Fom tana), THE LION OF SPARTA, by Johlfi Burke. This is the story of the film: that shows why Spartans gaw

r name to a certain kind of born courage. gives a first-hand account of battle at Thermopylae, the ow pass where Leonidas, King parta and 300 men, defied the it of the Persian army long [gh to put their names among immortals. (Great Pan).

Cpense Account, By Joe

*an. A warning to all post-war s who make life worth living ashing those old swindle-sheets, r Cody lived split-level fashion e level where everything went the expense account; the other le suburbs amongst the peeling t, an harassed wife and grow fids. It was when it tried to get levels onto the same plane he bought into big trouble, at Pan).

Ie Land God Gave To

ff, by Hammond Innes. This an intriguing story with ithing of the style of the late I Shute about it, set in the h land of Labrador. (Fontana).

Thread Of Scarlet, By

e Marshall. Donald Dunwhinnie pbell’s name stood out con lously amongst the Byrnes and Ryans at his ordination, but theless he became, in time, a [inal Archbishop. In between 3, this amusing and satirical I tells something of Father pbell’s life in a Scottish parish as he rose through the ranks, ds excursions abroad as well, tana).

YROLL, by Derek Bickerton. d on the popular post-war sh crime of hi-jacking payrolls, ;s out to show that accomplish ; is easy but that the after i, when the participants have to ow and trust one another, is erous. This story has recently filmed. (Great Pan).

[E Stone Of Chastity And

I LILLYWHITE, both by ;ery Sharp, practiced writer of fiction. The first is a pre-war ‘l, concerning the discoveries rofessor Isaac Pounce, folk-lore alist, and how he subsequently m old Norse legend to a test — surprising results. The second out Lise, 17 years old, brought i France but taken to England rante Amelie for one reason —to catch the eye of the most )le bachelor. (Fontana).

Ie Resurrection O F

IST, by A. M. Ramsey, Arch ►p of York. This is an attempt ivel lay readers a simple and scholarly account of the place he Resurrection in Christian . Archbishop Ramsay has had tinguished career as a church and a scholar. Since this m was published he has, >urse, been named as successor e present Archbishop of Canter when the latter shortly re (Fontana).

September Moon, By John

Moore. A romantic novel of the harvest season in the Herefordshire hop-fields—with some unromantic types introduced from Wales and the Midlands and some country style language to give it zest. (Fontana).

LOST GIRL, by John Boswell, a story of impersonation on a big scale and a newspaper photographer who took on crazy assignments. This habit finally took him to Port Moresby. And that’s crazy enough for anyone. (Fontana).

THE MARK, by Charles E. Israel.

A modern American novel, complete with psychiatrist who sounds just

like one of the boys, and a hero who, although he has paid his debt to society (five years), has a guilt complex. Recently filmed. (Great Pan.)

Paying Guest In Siberia,

an autobiography by Maria Hadow, who insisted on going into exile in Siberia with her mother. It proves that even this gruelling sort of life is endurable and that, if one can judge by the picture on the cover, a beautiful woman remains so even after years on a collective farm on the Steppes of Kazakhstan. But then, her story had a fairy-tale, ending. (Fontana). (Over)

Ie Listerdale Mystery

1 11 other stories) by Agatha stie. First published in 1934 and ung, if nothing else, that the d has got 37 years older and ‘ sophisticated since then. And, le same author, PERIL AT END rSE, published first in 1932 and republished for the umteenth This is a Poirot story—in the ■ days when he employed Hast as his Dr. Watson. (Fontana).

[E Devil At Four O’Clock,

pthing is possible in a modern er, and especially one written lax Catto. We reviewed this a couple of years ago when it first published. Readers may mber that it concerned a fist ing missionary, a Euronesian and lecherous Europeans, all yed on a volcanic eruption on jland in French Polynesia. It iemed unbelievable in the first 'n; it seems no less so in the -back. (Great Pan).

E PISTOL, by James Jones, "eviewed here a couple of years A short, short novel and one ite classical conception by the •r of “From Here To Eternity” with an output of about two > per dozen years, is obviously joing to make writing best ; too much of a habit. (Fon- VN OF D-DAY, by David rth. The landing of the forces on the Normandy es on June 6, 1944, has been n about ad nauseam —but J by Generals, War Corre ents and Statesmen. Howarth •Id the story through the men were actually there —the 's, sailors and airmen, British, can, German and French, to it wasn’t a matter of grand ?y or tactics, but one of bullets, and death. The author de > about 30 individual men’s D (xperiences, and overall gives cellent account of this most cated of military operations, ma).

? Greengage Summer, By

' Godden, an amusing, atmos story of English adolescents ad their first brush with adult the Champagne country of - —with surprising and Gallic . This novel has recently been into a film, with Kenneth Danielle Darrieux and lah York in the lead parts.

Pan).

Counterfeit Traitor

Bxander Klein. This is the tic story of one of the most aus spies of World War 11, "ickson. Born in Brooklyn, he r ing in Stockholm, a natural yedish citizen, when war came s enlisted as a spy in 1939 :hroughout the war was sed by his friends who be

lieved him a Nazi convert. For four years he gathered information in the heart of Hitler’s Reich that helped the Allied airforces to cripple German oil refineries. (Great Pan).

Always Another Door.

Douglas Keay tells the story of Pamela Russel and her husband Douglas Cross—one who had been crippled in a riding accident and the other in a plane crash—and their struggle to build new careers, Pamela on TV and Michael as a test pilot. (Great Pan).

MANDINGO, by Kyle Onstott.

The best selling novel about the high peak of slavery in the Ameri can South, when the Maxwells of Falconhurst bred the finest slave strain money could buy—Mandingo blood. (Pan Giant).

DRIVIN’ WOMAN, by Elizabeth Chevalier. Also of the Old South, but 40 years later, after the Civil War to free the slaves and when Mandingo blood was no longer im portant. (Fontana Monarch).

AVALANCHE, by Joseph Wechs berg, is a minute by minute account of an alpine disaster that proves that fact can sometimes be more exciting than fiction. (Great Pan).

Sir Francis Drake (By J A

Williamson); SIR ISAAC NEWTON (by E. N. da C. Andrade); and QUEEN ELIZABETH I (by Milton Waldman), are three interesting additions to Fontana’s “Short Biographies” series. All are aimed at the general reader and while be ing easy to assimilate do not “talk down.” (Fontana).

THE V.1.P., by Elleston Trevor.

An ex-King steps down from a plane at London airport and disappears on his way into tS ho city. Iron

curtain thuggery takes over and turns life into a nightmare of terror for a girl who had been only an innocent bystander. (Great Pan).

Good Speaking, By Mrs. A. M.

Henderson, who tells you how to cope when you are called upon to “say a few words” or indulge in more extended forms of oratory.

This, however, is the end result. The real purpose of this book is to in struct in good speaking, good speechmaking comes later. (Great Pan). (Our copies from W. M. Collins (Over seas) Ltd. Great Pan and Fontana at A3/9; Fontana Monarch, A7/6. All prices in the book section are Australian unless otherwise specified.)