And Enpredish
pp. 89-96 · Read in the full issue
How To Be Envuigar
If you have noticed a recent improvement in the standard PIM English it is probably only because of an ardent ilication to Current English Usage—A Concise Dictionary, Dr. F. T. Wood.
author is an English school taster, a recognised inter al authority on English lar and usage but manages to asonably unpedantic with it. dw has over a dozen learned looks and other works to his rent English Usage isn’t a aar book and it isn’t a lary, in the ordinary sense. It with points of syntax, punctua style, idiom, spelling and n usage and in this way is a companion to F. Howard s’ Authors’ and Printers’ nary, which is standard equip around newspaper offices. while Collins compiled for sional word-slingers, Dr. Wood at a larger audience and onally scolds it like an old ned Scots governess, this mood he warns British s and speakers to use British ;h and avoid Americanisms he plague. Similarly, although nay say flu, fridge, lab, lino or one should never write them, “dainty” words* like hankie, e, pinny, tummy, are suitable for women’s magazines (which, lagine, is the good doctor’s way nsigning them to the dirt-can); vulgarisms—like advert., gent, or appro—are everlastingly out. not good form to write Prof, id of Professor or Xmas instead hristmas, and if you see them :n, say them right out. To sx-mas is not only vulgar but right illiterate. gue words (and phrases), are a plague upon the English iage, springing up and being ed to death for a short time.
“A writer”, says Dr. Wood, “should keep a wary eye on vogue words of his own day, and then think twice before he uses them”. (Nothing dates them more).
This is a good book to dip into (said she, with the preposition per missably at the end of the sentence. vide Dr. Wood), and as such will provide endless entertainment for anyone cast away in a jungle out post. Let’s do a little dipping; On page 77: DUMB: In the sense of “stupid”, is an Americanism, not recognised in British English.
Etymologically it has no con nection with the normal English word dumb. It is the German
dumm (stupid) introduced into America in the speech of German immigrants in the latter part of last century, and then spelt dumb by analogy, or confusion, with the word meaning “unable to speak”.
Or on page 207: SCOT-FREE: So spelt. Not scott. A scot was the name of an old tax, so that to “get off scot-free” originally meant to get off without having to pay the tax.
Or on page 133: LADY: WOMAN. For the mere indication of sex use
an: Woman teacher, woman »r, women students, women rs . . . Lady is a courtesy and should be employed (i) for direct address and only in the plural, as ?s and Gentlemen. (lady for this purpose is a irism; the singular is im). Charlady, saleslady forelady are vulgar affecta , and lady cat, lady dog ish euphemisms.
Wood has about 270 pages with such pieces of advice formation. An encyclopaedia lish might have been a better ;o use for it than dictionary.
Rent English Usage. Pub
»y Macmillan. Price, 25/-.)
it People in
shouses
>eople used to the English or merican idiom, foreign novels, 'hen their translators have done iest, are an acquired taste —like i films. new Heinemann venture, The s assport Series, which aims to t contemporary, foreign lan novels in their English trans , is unlikely to make its mark e casual reader—the one who as an exercise in escapism—
although some of them are well worth the attention of the connoisseur.
Saturday to Monday, the latest in the series by a young German woman, Ruth Rehmann, is an excellent piece of character-building that spells out the usual message of the Continental novel—that life is real, earnest and terrifying.
The hallmark of every Contemporary novel, no matter which language it comes in, is its message of doom—why be Contemporary if you have no message?—but Continentaltype doom has a way of being just
a little more doomful than the British or American varieties.
Saturday to Monday dissects the characters and observes the motives of four people, the occupants of one office in a glass and ferro-concrete skyscraper. The observer is a circus performer turned window - cleaner, who spends most of his time sus pended between heaven and earth on the outside figuratively and actually looking in, Inside the glass cell is Theresa, the 19-year-old typist whose varied sex-life would already fill a Kinsey
but who currently is being from herself by Christopher, interested only in her soul— dering situation for formerly licated Theresa. t is Frau Schramm, over 60, 1 secretary to the director, who oted her life to the company 0 is about to be compulsorily and in between there is 40- 1 Carmen Viol, midway in ►etween Theresa and Frau tn, still looking for a man her from following in Frau m’s footsteps and marrying •k. mething of a minor key there Westermann, doomed to a üburban domesticity and nine tor, as it’s Germany, eight-to ice routine. The weekend that ivel covers gives all four ;rs a chance to face the fate raits them.
RDAY TO MONDAY. Published ;mann Ltd. Price 20/-.)
New Ones
ime
.E is no sex discrimination in : business of writing crime The girls are right up with a in this department, and this we have one from each he Busy Body, by Elizabeth ; and the Case of the Terrified by Erie Stanley Gardner.
BUSY BODY. Elizabeth , although a newer arrival on :ne of British crime writers is though she could, in J;he as prolific as Agatha Christie ;aio Marsh. This is the 18th novels and she now is a r-writer of Collins Crime Ties.
Ngaio Marsh, her plots are ated rather than ingenious, • saving talent is in characteri- Busy Body concerns the lat unconvincing antics of a identical twins and the con anguish of Anne Lindsay, as married to one of them, r her twin was as lily-white suggested is a matter that leared up until the final pages.
Case Of The Terrified
f. This must be the Gardner all Gardners because, at last, Mason loses a case to that o be pitied character, District y Hamilton Burger, case begins when Perry hires typist for a special job. She y nervous and disappears
without warning, leaving behind her a couple of diamonds stuck under her desk with chewing-gum (good old American habit, although the gum doesn’t usually contain diamonds).
A few days later Perry is hired to defend a man accused of murder and, against all the former rules of the Perry Mason game, the man is found guilty. Perry handles the situation with nonchalance but it certainly is The Case that the fans have been waiting for. (THE BUSY BODY. Published by Wm.
Collins Ltd. Price, 15/6. THE CASE
Of The Terrified Typist. Published
by Heinemann. Price, 16/-.)
Novels With The
French Touch
PSYCHOLOGICAL character study takes the place of crime solution in The Widower, by Simenon (trans lated by Robert Baldick), who is better known as the inventor of Maigret, the Paris detective who has now done his psychological best in over a dozen books.
Simenon divides his writing time between the adventures of Maigret and stories of other French characters who have kinks and problems.
Designer Jeantet lived a very ordered existence with a limited
of acquaintances, his own in being centred on his wife, , who—old-fashioned, French -was an ex-prostitute whom he scued. evening when he came home, was gone and his life was i pieces. The string of events up to the moment when she d dead in a seedy hotel, and e reacts to the new situation le basis of Simenon’s novel.
WIDOWER. Published by Hamish n. 15/6.)
iat from Moscow
Caroline Cherie
►E who have followed other ventures of Caroline de Salan hrough many countries and beds, will no doubt like to her into Cecil Saint Laurent’s episode in The Intrigues of e Cherie. rder to further her husband’s r own career, Caroline some erforms deeds beyond the call /, and although by now she ig to be something of a mature , her talents are unimpaired, ag survived (in other books in ies) the perils of the French ion, Regency England and the tween Napoleon and Spain, in st novel she is sent by Talley »n a secret mission to the : Court. ■e the mission is completed, Dn marches on Moscow and nvolved in the famous retreat, d as a French soldier, story finally ends in Spain, in factory manner for all ctfn mgh one may assume that i Napoleonic times the Con )f Europe had its troubles, it ;ant to reflect that boisterous ers like Caroline, unlike the ;rs in the ultra Contemporary of today refuse to see life Life might have been short, ertainly had its moments.
Intrigues Of Caroline
Published by Heinemanns. Price
)dern Novel About
toly
iW Italian writer, Liane de cci, has the advantage of an education and an American and her first novel Venetian thus appears in English with necessity of translation, background of the novel is ic—based on the fact that her andfather had possessed a re le voice but was never allowed
to sing in opera because “no gentle man” could do such a thing.
It is the story of two aristocratic Italian families in the late 19th century of the poverty - stricken Cortis, managed by the formidable and domineering widowed Baronessa who is determined that nothing shall stand in the way of getting her children suitably established; and of the wealthy neighbouring family of Count Salvi.
Against a background of ancient Venetian palaces, opera houses and the glittering salons of the nobility, individual Cortis and Salvis play out their stories but the central figure is always Lorenzo, who Baronessa Corti had manoeuvred into the legal pro fession as one of the few ways in which a gentleman might earn a living.
Lorenzo, however, had a voice made for opera and unlike the author’s grandfather, was determined to use it.
This is a smooth and accomplished modern novel about a side of Conti nental life that even yet has not en tirely disappeared. (VENETIAN YEARS. Published by Hodder & Stoughton. 26/-.)
Get Them Together
But Keep it Short
Associations (why do so many go phut) and meetings (what to say and how to say it), are the subjects of two small Australian publications which should be invalu able to the public-spirited.
How To Make Your Asso
CIATION PROSPER is by Austin Donnelly, who is an accountant by profession and a shot-in-the-arm man for moribund societies and associa tions by inclination. Ele has raised dozens of them practically from the dead.
His book is a how-to-do-it-yourself guide for those people who cannot retain his personal services and con tains such resuscitation methods as how to get the right people for office bearers, how to capture and hold member interest and how to encourage the active participation of members —all minor miracles in themselves.
MR. CHAIRMAN is by Marjorie Puregger. It includes Parliamentary procedures, the importance of standing-orders, not only for Par liament but for the most modest of organisations, how to propose a vote of thanks, how to keep a minute book—in fact it’s a concise encyclo paedia for everyone who is ever likely to open their mouths in public.
It contains, in addition, informa tion on how to address Archbishops; the fact that one should use only white or grey notepaper and enve lopes (with no fancy trimmings); and
that although a Governor-General
rates a lady’s curtsey, a State Gov ernor does not.
But perhaps the advice that I
liked best of all was the constant admonition to speech makers to “keep it short.” As one who has been bored to tears by practically every speech that was ever made, this I can really endorse. (Both books published by Jacaranda Press. Price 8/6 each.)
What’s New in Paper Backs
Commander Burt Op Scotland
YARD, by himself. This is the auto biography of Commander Leonard Burt, CVO, CBE, a real life Scotland Yard character who outdid anything concocted by a Whodunnit writer. Burt began life as a constable on a London beat and ended it as Commander Special Branch.
It was part of his job, at the end of the last war, to arrest in Europe and escort back to England—and the hang man’s noose—two traitors. One was William Joyce—better known as Lord Haw-Haw. The other was John Amery, not remembered so frequently these days, but whose defection was even more re markable than Joyce’s (He was the son of Leonard Amery, Conservative MP and many times Cabinet Minister between 1911-45; and brother of Julian Amery the present Conservative MP and Minister).
Burt later arrested Nunn May and Fuchs, the atom spies, and in the course of his career had first-hand acquaintance with royalty and other VlP’s. As well as being a top ranking sleuth Burt does a good job with the pen. The real thing, as he tells it, is quite as exciting as fictionalised crime. (Great Pan.)
Murder In Mesopotamia, By
Agatha Christie, who is married to an archaeologist and who is interested in the business herself. This is one of several thrillers she wrote with a Middle Eastern background. (Fontana.) A FULL LIFE, by Lt.-General Sir Brian Horrocks. This is another version of the war in North Africa and Europe by one of the important soldiers of World War 11. Horrocks was born into the profession of soldiering, his father having been a British Army medical officer.
In the Second World War he was one of Montgomery’s trusted Corps Com manders and after the war he became the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod in the House of Lords, in which job he has a whole list of ceremonial duties and is charged with keeping order in the visitors’ galleries and on the floor of the House.
He has also become a commentator on BBC radio and TV. (Fontana.)
The White South And The Trojan
HORSE, by Hammond Innes. There is a hint of Shackelton’s adventures in the former, which concerns a whaling ship caught in the grip of Antarctic ice and a whale boat journey to South Georgia, in the Falkland Islands. Five hundred men were on the ship—and two women, who provide the sex interest. The second Innes epic is an early war model, about Nazi spies, Jewish refugees and (good old movie stuff) a wild chase through the sewers of London. (Fontana.) THE GOLDEN DEED, by Andrew Garve. A suspense-thriller written in this
author’s rather off-hand fashion, bul experienced readers of this type of will drop on the solution befor final revelation. Garve writes o theory that “it could happen to an The reader has to decide whetl could. (Fontana.)
The Man Who Walked Awi
Charlotte Jay. When rich, fat, ugl offer beautiful girls a life of lux usually means trouble. It did for Graham, who did what she did f fatherless son, Simon, and then herself at the wrong end of a i plot. (Fontana.)
Blood On The Moon, By Luke
About a man who had a gun travelled. A Western, of cour those who like them. (Fontana.)
The Loving Heart, By Lucy 1
Incredible as it may seem, it’s “fabulously wealthy Grant Jarvis employs a girl to accompany I Australia as his fiancee, to prevenl designing females from pursuing You’ve guessed it —the pseudo does her block over him. (Fontai BELOVED ENEMY, by Charles ton. Pritchard was taken POW fall of Hongkong, sent to a Js prison camp, escaped and wa friended by a Japanese family ■ beautiful daughter. As his i returns, he has plenty of time to on the contrast between love Japanese countryside and brutality Japanese prison camp. (Fontana.)
Whiteoak Harvest, By Mazo
Roche, who struck the jackpot w first of her Whiteoaks novels, “ in 1927. By the time of the a death last year, something like 12 of her novels had been sold, writer’s inspiration had been the of retired military and naval : which established themselves in Si Ontario and clung determinet British traditions. None of the : could have been so extraordinary Whiteoaks, however; their s individual habits have provided g: 15 novels. (Pan Giant.)
These Old Shades, By G(
Heyer. This was the novel—publii far back as 1926—which put this on the map as a spinner of 1 tales. Thirty-six years later she at it, but this is the one with she will always be identified in th( of her early fans. (Pan Giant.) (Our copies from Wm. Collins seas) Ltd. Australian prices: 1 4/-; Great Pan 4/-; Pan Giant
The Autumn 'Quadran'
The Australian literary qu
Quadrant is now appearing in
and more attractive cover, br
tinues to contain the usual gc
sortment of material.
Everything from verse to i on economics can be found
new Autumn number—in sh
pre-digested literary meal f(
aspiring cultivated mind.
There is a short-story by 1
White, who in April won the
Franklin Award for his new
Riders in the Chariot. Quad)
5/- Australian per issue, or 2(
annum, post free.