Best of the Paperbacks

Non-Fiction: THE RIVER WAR was Winston S. Churchill's first book of contentporary history, first published in 1899. The war in the Sudan began ™' h , the „ re r Hon , 0f the Ma £ di in ihLlc , < Li r , ag ?" r m n dl l er i nt al ™ost to the end of the t lhl T bac ground to the trouble, but most nLu!L °'L“ n rl" S „ J? ie J ex ped.tion under General Kitchener, relieved Khartoum, where fmioh/ihPfi r a? 1 ), ut» S ( / PP /' and fought the final battle of Omdurman, at which young Churchill was present. (Four Square; 10/-).

My Darling Clementine

by Jack Fishman—the story of Lady Churchill which turns out to be pretty much another story of Winston. (Pan; N.S.).

THE LIFE SAVERS by Ritchie

Calder is a study, in layman’s lan * ua S e .’ ° f toda y’ s wonder-drugs wntte ” happy-ever-after style and ? sa boost for he pharmaceutical industry - ( Pan i 6/-).

The Wildest Game By Peter

R yb> ner and Daniel Manix Peter Ryhiner is about the last of the bring-em-back-alive characters who collect wild animals for zoos, etc.

He actually has a table in the front of the book to show how h better he was at it than Frank Buck Manmx, whose name also appears on the title pa seems only^ 0 hav helped with the writin y (Four Square; 6/-).

TU ’ „

Book Of Animal

SI OKIES is an original and contains „ ° y j; oy Adamson, Stuart Cloete, Robert Ruark, James Thurber and dozens of other well-known writers. (o ver)

OLAF RUMEN'S NEW BOOK, "lively Ghosts" (Hodder and Stoughton, 26/6) is a reminder that the author of "Minerva Reef" is a word spinner who is probably even more at home with fiction. Most of the short stories in "Lively Ghosts" have been published before, and all concern the sea.

Their subjects would fill a Noah’s Ark. (Pan; 8/-.) War:

The Guns Of August

AUGUST 1914 by Barbara W.

Tuchman. This large history covers the period from the death of Edward VII, when nine reigning kings walked in his funeral pro cession, until the end of 1914 and the end of the Battle of the Marne, which resulted in the German retreat from Paris. The author takes this final point because she believes that the Marne was “one of the decisive battles of the world, not because it determined that Germany would ultimately lose or the Allies would ultimately win the war, but because it determined that the war would go on”. After that the Great War dragged on for four more years and “the great words and beliefs of the time before 1914 could never be restored”. (Four Square; 8/-).

The Hunting Of Force Z

by Richard Hough. Force Z was another name for the British battle ships Repulse and Prince of Wales that were sent to Singapore in December, 1941, in the hope of staying Japan’s hand. This is the story of their defeat and of the end of big ships generally. (Fontana; 5/each).

Reach For The Sky—Paul

Brickhill’s story of Douglas Bader. (Fontana; 7/6).

The Tunnel And The

WOODEN HORSE by Eric Williams, both concerning escapes and escape attempts from German POW camps. (Fontana; 5/6 each).

Fiction: H.M.S. ULYSSES, Alistair Mac lean’s first novel, which many regard as his best. The story of the Russian convoys and the destroyer that would not die. (Fontana; 5/6).

Behold A Pale Horse By

Emeric Pressburger—a racy novel about smuggling in the Pyrenees, now made into a movie by Columbia with Gregory Peck and Anthony Quinn. (Fontana; 5/6).

Time For A Tiger, The

Enemy In The Blanket, And

Beds In The East, All By

Anthony Burgess, all about post-war Malaya, and all now collected in one omnibus volume. Separately, by the same author. A CLOCKWORK

ORANGE, which takes a look into the future of London, terrorised by young toughs. (Pan; 11/6 and 6/-).

A Prologue To Love

Taylor Caldwell’s psychological study of a female financial genius who made a fortune of $3OO million but lost the gift of being human.

Reviewed in PIM two years ago. (Fontana; 7/6)).

FIA FIA by James Ramsay Ullman. An untamed native girl on a lush tropical South Seas island.

Yum, yum. (Fontana; 7/6).

THE PRIZE by Irving Wallace— a novel based on the private lives of six imaginary Nobel prizewinners, in which scandal and tragedy are intermingled with fame. (Four Square; 11/6).

MOST SECRET by Nevil Shute— one of his war-time jobs (the best

period for Shute) concerning a British raid on occupied France. (Pan; 6/-).

The Dark Side Of Venus

by Shirley Verel—about a couple of lesbians; and THE GARFIELD HONOUR by Frank Yerby—about 19th century Texas and three women in love with the same man. (Four Square; 6/- each).

The Caine Mutiny, By Her

man Wouk. This omnibus-sized novel of the American Navy in the Pacific during World War II is regarded as an American classic, at any rate in America. It has sold 5 million copies across the world, won a Pulitzer Prize, has been made into a film and a play. (Pan; 8/-.)

With Hooves Of Brass, By

Robert S. Close, an expatriate Aus tralian who now lives in France since his Love Me, Sailor was banned in his home State of Victoria (although it became a best seller in the UK and USA). The current novel is Somerset Maughamish in its hot, breathless Australian summer at Barnard’s tim ber mill, its preacher with biological urge and its shapely waitress who wore nothing beneath her sleeveless dress. (Pan; 4/-.) Thrillers: FEAR IS THE KEY by Alistair Maclean who, far from his native Scotland, writes “a novel of ruthless revenge in the Gulf of Mexico”. (Fontana; 5/6).

Murder In The Mews,

Mystery On The Blue Train

and MURDER IS EASY, all vintage Agatha Christie—l 927, 1928 and 1939 to be precise. (Fontana; 5/6 each).

Colour Scheme, Hand In

Glove And Opening Night,

not quite so vintage Ngaio Marsh— -1943 (NZ period), 1962 and 1951 (London period). (Fontana; 5/6).

THE DEADLINE by Paul Brick hill who turns from the factual {Reach for the Sky ) to thrillers. (Fontana; 5/6).

A GRUE OF ICE and A TWIST OF SAND by Jeoffrey Jenkins, a South African writer who has entered the thriller-adventure field. The first story about the Antarctic; the second about the sea off South West Africa. (Fontana; 5/6). (Pan and Fontana from Wm. Collins (overseas) Ltd.; Sydney; Four Square from Tudor Distributors Pty. Ltd., Sydney).