The Secrets of Alexander Harris

Those interested in Australiana—and there is a growing body of iaders ready to absorb all the early work on Australia that they can if t —will be interested in “The Secrets of Alexander Harris”, which clears p a literary mystery.

Lexander Harris” Was The

■ author of Settlers and Convicts, Recollections of 16 years’ Labour tie Australian Backwoods”, which first published in 1848, and later Emigrant Family, or “The Story an Australian Settler”; and A ie to Port Stephens in New South es. he first of these was published lymously, and it was always as ed that when the name of ixander Harris” did appear that as simply a pen name. In the 10 years there has been renewed est in Australian literary circles 3 the real identity of the author, se work gave such an insight into f life in the Colony, with the It that the matter came to the ition of Mr. Grant Carr-Harris, )ttawa, Canada. r. Carr-Harris was able to reveal “Alexander Harris” doesn’t re ; quotation marks, because he a real person, in the form of his dfather. He had been born in and in 1805 and had died in ida in 1874. Furthermore, he published in the Saturday Evening in 1858 his autobiography titled igio Christi”, lis is the autobiography which is published in Australia for the time, under the name of The zts of Alexander Harris. It has Production by Carr-Harris and a ice by Alec Chisholm, president he Royal Australian Historical ;ty, plus notes and explanations, work sheds further light on early ralian history.

[E Secrets Op Alexander

lIS. Published by Angus and Robert -30/-.)

Thomas Gray with his gentle sense of humour to Nannie who never feels that Vanessa has outgrown the nursery and still requires supervision morally and as to nails, hair and teeth!

The complications caused by the arrival of Don Temple, a small por tion of Vanessa’s past, are many but at least they clear the way for several people’s happiness by helping them to make up their own minds.

If one feels that they have been a long while getting to grips with their problems at least one realises that the solutions provide a charming and amusing story. It’s a book for feminine readers.

DON ALBERTO, by P. AA. Learoyd.

Peter Davies, 20/-.

This is a novel of high comedy, with moments of boisterous farce.

Don Alberto Di Glew, born Albert Glew, returns from South America and descends on his unsuspecting niece in the Yorkshire town of Brigthorpe. She is living happily married to a local councillor, Henry Micklethwaite, who has hopes of becoming Brigthorpe’s next mayor.

Don Alberto is an elderly, jaunty, reprobate who galvanises one way or another the lives of a lot of people

in Brigthorpe, but most particularly that of Henry Micklethwaite.

The Exile Of Capri, By Roger

Peyrefitte. Seeker and Warburg,

22/6.

It deals in fictional form with events and personalities of the decade that immediately preceded World War I.

The exile of the title is Comte Jacques d’Adelsward-Fersen, the young Parisian son of a millionaire French steel-owner, who as a result of a too blatant display of interest in schoolboys is denounced to the police and sent to prison. After his release he settles down on the island

Capri in a fabulous villa with an pted peasant boy. acques’ companions on the island homosexuals almost to a man.

Peyrefitte handles his material i great skill and describes his racters with much wit, but even t is a very dull novel. Is Jacques lomosexual? One never knows, »use M. Peyrefitte is too clever tell. He certainly evinces an aordinary interest in all things aining to homosexuality, and has means and leisure to indulge his ms, but whether he ever steps • the dividing line is left to the ler to decide. me feels it was a pity that the lor devoted his very obvious tits to such a boring subject.

QUEST, by Frederick Karl,

leinemann, 22/6.

. reminder of the vandalism of is provided in this novel dealing i the occupation of Florence by Germans. Retreating before the ish, the Nazis blew up the cen ss old bridges across the Arno, i the three-arched Santa Trinita, ched by Michelangelo and built Ammanati more than 400 years hider the strains of occupation, Signora, her lover Pauli, and her her a Partisan leader, are borne ig towards the inevitable solution their personal conflict. Whether erican author Karl intended it or the city of Florence, rather than nhabitants dominates the book, as urely dominates the lives of its ens today.

MPEDE, by Reginald L. Ottley.

/erner Laurie, 19/6.

ic, the hero of this Australian back yarn—it is hardly a novel— i hard drinking, foul mouthed le drover who incredibly never as to get beyond Goddamit! in cs on every other page. The y, such as it is, concerns the rts at relaxation—usually ending i drunken brawl—made by Ric his mates Mick and Joe, cul ating in a cattle stampede. Ric’s fectual romance with Joan, if any g, supports the theory held by e psychiatrists that “mateship” >ng Australians might have less to with surface friendship than with at homosexuality. The author, inald Ottley, has worked on out c stations, broken and trained :-horses. He has also worked in the Solomon Islands, and New sdonia. Recently he went to land to “take a chance on writ ’. This is his first novel.

A PEAK IN DARIEN, by Roswell G.

Ham. The Bodley Head, 18/9.

... T i .

The next thing I knew he was in my sleeping bag with me. I was drowsy but remembered that if there was anytime I could make a baby this was it. I grabbed the first thing I could reach—a log beside the fireplace and pounded him on the back of the head with it until he stopped.”

Anyone who doubts the strength of the American female should read more of Virginia’s romantic reminiscences in this novel which revolves about Wink Marshall, a television news-caster who upsets his sponsors by falling in love with Virginia, his

neighbour’s 22-year-old daughter.

Banished to England, Wink returns with a sensational scoop and takes Virginia at last to an honourable bed.

However, the book moves at a fairly slow pace.

GILLIAN, by Frank Yerby,

Heinemann, 22/6.

Gillian Mac Allister was a remark ably beautiful woman, but when Geoffrey Lynne returns from Europe to his hometown in Alabama, he finds nobody who could even pretend to be very sorry that she had been murdered. Geoffrey’s own brother, Gregory (the author could have

avoided some confusion here by sell ing two names not so very simil is accused of the murder and c fesses, but Geoffrey was determii to save him and starts by unravel! the angle of love and hate wa round the murdered woman. TH is depravity and sadism in pie; excitement and romance in the 1 Frank Yerby style set amid the he days of early industrialism in South.

MEN AND ANGELS, by Robin Wh

The Bodley Head, 20/-.

Lucas Barber learns that his fat an American missionary, has dieo South India. His recollections of early youth are bitter and, despite knowledge that his father was insensitive and inept man, he forth for India to investigate father’s death and seek his < peace of mind. He learns his fa had abandoned the mission, giver his possessions, adopted In attitudes and finally ended his lif an anguish of body and mind. Li also discovers Sarojini.

Robin White is already well km for his two earlier novels —Elepi Hill and House of Many Rooms. new book conveys, always 1 sympathy, often with humour, atmosphere of the India he know well.

The Blazing Straw, By Hi

Fowler. Angus & Robert: 18/9.

The story opens in a suburb Dublin in 1960, with the sun shi; through the windows of the 1 library on the people coming going to exchange books and vol Irish chatter with Kit Bentley, girl in charge. The placid sur conceals suspense, peril and trag There has been an IRA raid ac the Border, and now there i wounded man to be hidden prisoners to be rescued. Kit Ber is an Australian (one wonders \ on earth she is doing in Irela and then there is Bill Slade, ano Australian who has dropped in chance and sensed that troubh brewing and decides to “s around”. So for them the afterc moves on with mounting ten towards the hours of darkness, time of action and danger.

Helen Fowler is a native of Syd now living in London. Her novel, The Shades Will Not Vai published in America under the of The Intruder, was the Amer Literary Guild choice for Ma 1953.

NG FREE, by Joy Adamson,

oil ins, 35/-.

iis is the sequel to Joy Adamson’s seller, Born Free, the famous [ which told how Mrs. Adamson her husband raised Elsa the ss from a cub, trained her for ee life in the bush of Kenya, lat Elsa continued her friendship after returning to the wild, reviewed Born Free in June, i, and the latest volume is as ididly produced, with plenty of Dgraphs, and as fascinating to as that first book, lose who have Born Free will to have this one, where the is continued from the time that mated with a wild lion until her were a year old. month after this book was led Elsa died in the bush after llness, her cubs went wild and finally caught and taken 700 to Tanganyika, where they now e story of the events following s death are promised in a third ne. No doubt the three volumes nake a triology of animal stories tvill come to be regarded as being ig the greats.

Case Of The Nervous

'COMPLICE, by Erie Stanley

irdner. Heinemann, 16/-.

iother Perry Mason thriller, with ecipe as always—and as always, reading for Mason fans. Perry red to get to the bottom of a iry involving a husband who is )sed to have the five-year itch cheating with a dish who has big soulful—and suspicious— What’s her game? Perry enters the spirit of the job.

Women Can't Quit, By

A. Fair. Heinemann, 16/-.

A. Fair is Erie Stanley Gardner, ostead of Perry and Della Street ’s the Donald Lam and Bertha combination. Donald and a between them get mixed up in moured truck robbery, in which olice have been accused of hav dirty hand. Donald, as usual, Is a lot of his time looking over ladies—-and peering down the of his secretary’s dress—but are other kinds of action as well.

Snake Has All The Lines, By

an Kerr. Heinemann, 13/3.

m Kerr is the author of Please 1 Fat the Daisies, which won her

genuine humourist since Robert Benchley”. Personally, we prefer the late Benchley, but her latest slim volume helps to while away an hour or two. It comprises 15 short humourous pieces on subjects such as flying, looking after the kids at the beach and composing letters of protest that are never sent. Most, or perhaps all, have been published by various American magazines. Some of them are very slight, and some are a little forced, so that one gets the impression that Mrs. Kerr is going to be a humourist even if it kills her.