Best of the Paperbacks

ANEW line in Australasian paperbacks has been launched by Ure Smith Pty. Ltd. in Sydney and A. H. & A. W. Reed, of Wellington, NZ. Called Humour books they are attractively produced —a couple of steps-up-grade from the usual run of their type—but like all Australasian productions, dearer than the imported article.

The first six titles produced in cluded four from the Australian side of the Tasman:

They’Re A Weird Mob, By

John O’Grady, writing as Nino Culotta. This is the Australian best seller of all time—3so,ooo copies of the more expensive edition have been sold and this, Australian wise, puts it in a class by itself.

The paperback version will, no doubt, win even more friends for Nino, the New Australian who found life bewildering among the older hands of Sydney suburbia. (8/-.)

The Dinkum Pommie, By

Bernard Hesl’ing, who is not so much New as Neo Australian— he’s been there since 1928. This is the story of his depommification during which time he was window designer, cosmetician, film executive, gold-digger, writer and cartoonist— among other things. (8/-.)

How To Become A

SCRATCH GOLFER, by Patrick Campbell, is something of a ring-in, in that it isn’t Australasian but was published first, in the hard-cover version, in the United Kingdom.

However, the language spoken by golfers is no doubt universal and Down Under readers won’t have any trouble in understanding. (6/-.)

Why Can’T The English,

by Lesley Rowlands. Half-a-dozen years ago the author, like a big proportion of Australasian girls, decided to finish her education by taking a working holiday in the United Kingdom. She had adven tures, which she tells with a fine sense of the ridiculous. (8/-,) Other paperbacks received this month include:

Gold Dust And Ashes, By

lon L. Idriess. This is probably this writer’s most famous book. It covers the discovery of gold at Wau,

Bulolo and Edie Creek in the Morobe District of New Guinea and the establishment of the unique air service that made it possible to get 2,000 ton dredges into the unroaded interior. New Guinea during its most romantic period. (Pacific Books; 6/-.)

Death Of A Swagman, By

Arthur W. Upfield. Like all of this writer’s stories, the charm lies in its authentic Australian outback atmosphere—in this case, in the far south-west of New South Wales.

Detective Inspector Bonaparte un ravels the clues. (Pacific Books; 6/-.) SANDY’S SELECTION, by Steele Rudd. The folk stories of Dad, Dave and their Selection are hardy perennials. This collection was first published in 1904—and is still collecting readers. (Pacific Books; 6/-.)

Beyond Blue Hills, By

Gwen Meredith. This is based on the ABC radio serial that has now being going on, under different sub heads, into a second generation of listeners. (Pacific Books; 6/-.)

The Mysterious Rider, By

Zane Grey, which proves only that old Westerns never die. (Hodder; 4/-.)

The Hearth And Eagle, By

Anya Seton. The title is the name of a tavern on the New England seaboard and the story concerns the lives of those connected with it.

Early America provides the back ground. (Hodder; 5/-.) Fiction:

The World Of Suzie Wong,

The Passionate Summer, And

THE FEVER TREE, all by Richard Mason. Suzie Wong gave two new words to the Hong Kong waterfront —Suzie and Wong; the other two novels are equally exotic, one being backgrounded by Jamaica and the other India although perhaps neither are quite such a delicious dish as Suzie. (Fontana.)

The Valley Of Spiders And

The First Men In The Moon,

by H. G. Wells. The first is a collec

tion of horror and ghost stories; the second, one of the master’s first essays into science fiction. It was written in 1902 at a time when this type of literature was more fiction than science. The moon, as Wells saw it, was a land of hostile jelly-like creatures, fluorescent fungus and sinister plants, all run by a Brain. (Fontana.)

The Angry Mountain,

Killer Mine And Campbell’S

KINGDOM, all by Hammond Innes, who moves his locales around like someone in the jet-set. The first story climaxes with an eruption in Mt.

Vesuvius, the second with a mine in Cornwall; and the third ends on an impossible peak of the Rocky Moun tains, All contribute to the legend that Innes is “our greatest living story-teller”. (Fontana.) Thrillers And Crime:

The Saint Goes West And

THE SAINT IN MIAMI, by Leslie Charteris; and THE BLACK ABBOT, by Edgar Wallace, merely prove that an old mystery is always good for a new airing. (All Hodder; 4/-.) (Our copies from Ure Smith, Angus and Robertson. Hodder and Stoughton, and Wm. Collins (Overseas) Ltd Sydney.)