Two Xew Ones On Australia

Australia

There are no points of resemblance between The Reckon ing, by Hugh Atkinson; and Horses in the Kitchen by R. H.

Conquest—except that both writers are Australians, writing about Australians.

/CONQUEST is a frequent con v/ tributor to the Sydney magazine People and although he is the author of one novel ( The Spurs are Rusty Now) this is a collection of articles that originally appeared in the magazine.

They are factual—or basically so —written around characters he met in the days when he was a “bushie” himself.

He is unlike the old-time writers about the Australian bush who saw only the tragedy—people with barbed wire in their souls who, when they were not being battered by drought, were up to their necks in flood water.

He tries to see the positive side of outback life, which, the way he tells it, is usually entertaining.

His stories concern pioneers like Mulga Jackson—who declined the honour: “My old man was the pioneer ... he was speared in the back and had his skull cracked by a nulla-nulla. But he survived and later fathered five kids.”

They also concern the customs of the country—such as the difference between being a one-nail man or a six-nail man in the days when low boys and wardrobes were not part of the furnishing of men’s quarters in the outback.

It is good entertainment, although it comes under the heading of nostalgia rather than anything per taining to contemporary Australia.

Contemporary Novel

Hugh Atkinson’s novel is con temporary, although the characters are Australian—or New Australian —it could equally as well have been placed in the United States setting.

The theme is psychological. The stories of half a dozen men whose lives have, one way or another, come unstuck at the seams, are brought together as they attempt to hunt down a Polish migrant who has fled from the farm where his employer’s wife has been bloodily done to death.

This novel was financed by a Commonwealth Literary Fellowship.

Its author has tried everything pro fessionally, from advertising copy writing to magazine editing. He also classes himself as an ex-beach comber, having some years back been deported from Tahiti. He is now married and lives in London.

(Horses In The Kitchen. Ure

Smith. 26/6. THE RECKONING. Bodley Head. 21/-.)