[?]E Many Faces

Of Love

time, the period we are living in may come to be led as the renaissance of

alian writing. No month

>asses without a first novel )mise by a writer hitherto

etely unknown.

)RE the first World War, Aus ilia had what might be re as its classical period, fathered e degree by the old Bulletin. n the wars, and up until the cade, Australian writing was y unfashionable, but most of completey boring, change has been staggering ift—and might be attributed •eater sophistication following ic stability that allows of more the migrant invasion and sev ter factors.

Stirling’s The Scarlet Blossom ie in point. It is a first novel on what might have been an bitious plan had not the con sunlight and shadow of the an and German sequences sus t over some sticky patches, writer has, also, a hilarious f humour, purely Australian n, that is as natural in its as the Australian background, is a story of two sets of two generations and two Wars but mostly the story McGregor, who was an in arms in August, 1918, when ler was killed in France in ting around the Somme, need by her mother, who de a psychopathic resentment early widowhood, Ann grew a natural detestation of war waste— tempered by a hearty nt of life itself and a robust -sense.

Jt only this Australian family fenced by that August, 1918, the Somme. It affected even ' lives of young Willi Johann uth Hoffman and Ernst Id of Hamburg, who grew i defeated Germany which >ver, amost before they had lescence, into Hitler’s Ger heir’s was a much more real f political thought than that and her contemporaries who in an academic “ism” or ie process of growing up. wo separate stories, German tralian, are linked ultimately Ernst and Ann after several ntures in love, and although

the authors German characters are an unrelieved sombre lot, there is compensation in the very human bemgs that populate the Australian story—and particularly in Ann.

Whether as the scruffy eight year old who finds the attentions of her young, male teacher urk ; or as the university student who decides it is time to give up her virginity, she is wholly alive and delightful. (THE SCARLET BLOSSOM. Published by Heinemann. Aust. price 21/- ) \

Who, Wmo Or

A/r ,\,l

Wry V

Ynii’vc j r UU VE probably never heard of the IPU (it means Inter- Parliamentary Union and is not the

brand-name of some Iron Curtain secret police, as you might expect)but UNICEF, ILO and SPC no doubt ring a bell In this age of alphabetical nomen clature, it’s likely that not more than half the citizens who reel these code names off their tongues have a precise idea what the letters stand for or why or how the organisations func tion.

To the rescue of nponlp wtin Ti , , lllc ICi>Lue . OI people WHO nave to know these things, now comes the Central Office of Information, Lon don’ with a book called Guide to In ternational Organisations. This lists ever y world organisation of impor

* World Health Organisation; World Meteorological Organisation; World Refugee Year.

both governmental and non imental, setting out its full shorter initial title, if any; its carters, chief executive officer, srship; its creation and purpose; ;anisation and its activities up the government side there is ling from Arab League to for World Metorological sation; and on the non ment side, from ATA for c Treaty Association to WUS orld University Service, i certain insecticide advertise rs it about the carpet-beetles your rug, international organ are also “breeding, breeding”! net result is that it’s a pretty )k to begin with, with more to With this in mind the pub have supplied it in an in form of binding, complete gadget called a “comb” so i add more pages about more itions as the new information to you. copy came to us through the ' of the United Kingdom In m Service, Sydney, but it can chased from Her Majesty’s ry Office, York House, Kings ondon WC2, or any other of the same organisation.

Upon Q

2d Ocean

urse of some latter-day An it Mariner lies heavily on waway, a novel by Lawrence Hall, Lieutenant-Commander et’d. ieutenant-Commander is now sor of English and his story le influence of the professor han of the sailor—a neo piece of prose that is heavily iric in the tradition of writers sa in a past generation, ils the story of the Liberty ie of the more beat-up of rty ships to survive the war. iths, she meandered around anean ports with only half and without any direction ?r owners and then was across the Indian Ocean to e (which the Professor spells e’s). aptain is old and sick and his cabin. The Mate is young iant but, peeved because he -Pt responsibility without the ding authority, he takes to 'St of the officers and crew e completely until the ves lowing, for all practical pur relict in the middle of the cean.

This is not a modern tale of the sea, except in time. But should have merit for those who can overlook reason and commonsense in the cause of good writing and atmosphere. (THE STOWAWAY. Published by Macmillans. Aust. price, 20/-.)