The Latest in Brief

VENUS HALF-CASTE, by Leonard Mann. An unglamourised story of life in a big Australian city seen through the eyes of a part-Aborigine girl. As Australia’s race-relation problems, within her own shores, are virtually nil in comparison with other countries, it’s a story that could have been more easily placed in Notting hill Gate, London or the American South. (Hodder and Stoughton Ltd. 22/6.)

Bushranger Of The Skies,

by Arthur Upfield. It was first published in 1940 and now reprinted but the passage of time hasn’t dated this typical Napoleon Bonaparte story. If anything, Upfield was a bit ahead of his time as the villain of this pre-war piece was already riding the Central Australian range in a light aircraft. On the whole, good outback Australian stuff. (Angus and Robertson Ltd. 18/9.)

Conquistadors In North

AMERICA, by Paul Horgan. The story of the colonisation and

exploration of the North American continent by the Spaniards. In the 200 years after Columbus they conquered Mexico and sent ex peditions into what are now Cali fornia, Colorado, Arizona, and Texas.

Others got as far north as Kansas and as far east as Tennassee. (Macmillan. 31/-.)

Blizzard And Fire, Is An

account of a year at the Australian base at Mawson, Antarctica, told through letters home by John Bechervaise, who was in charge of the Australian scientific expedition there in 1959. It is an interesting chronicle, helped with good pictures.

Mr. Bechervaise is at home with words, and many things happened that year for him to write about, including two fires and a decent blizzard or two. (Angus and Robertson. 27/6.)

The Girls Of Slender

MEANS is the latest by English writer Muriel Spark, who has given us some weird, but excellent, short novels, including The Ballad of Beckham Rye. In her usual airy-fairy style Miss Spark tells the story of the odd collection of girls and the old maids who live in a London hostel during the war. It is a slight tale, not much more than a short story, and perhaps it is just a little too slight and a little too short for the price. Better value next time, please Miss Spark. (Macmillan, London. 21/9.) THE SHADY TREE started out to be a book by that remarkable Australian bushman and raconteur Bill Harney, but he hadn’t finished the job when he died at the end of 1962. His friend, newspaperman Douglas Lockwood, finished the job for him, and in fact rewrote the early chapters, too. He did the rewriting not because Bill Harney couldn’t write a good book—he certainly proved often enough that he could— but because Lockwood knew he couldn’t recapture Harney’s style.

Ihe result is that these stories of Harney s outback life are neither Harney nor Lockwood, but the book is good reading for all that. (Rigby Ltd. 30/-.)