The Observer from London, Greater London, England • 3

THE OBSERVER, SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 1945 El El IS You should put your name doira MAN FROM THE NORTH IS of Nordahl Grieg. Translated from the Norwegian by G. M. Gathorne-Hardy. (Hodder and Stoughton.

6a.) By EDWARD THOMPSON WATCHING THE WARS The First War Correspondent: William Howard Russell, of The Times." By Rupert Furneaux. (Cassell. 12s. 6d.) Gullible Travels. By Richard Busvrtne.

(Constable. 10s.) By JOHN MOORE ary, explain why he did not. Yes, I do think it very fine, but I can never quite reconcile myself to a man who says that sort of thing in conditions of complete safety. I often look forward with a kind of horror to the prospect after the war of seeing one of the best of Fine Flower Virginia Woolf. 'Bv Joan Bennett.

(Cambridge University Press. 6s.) By B. IFOR EVANS ONLY now, when one has rea-lised that Virginia Woolf is dead, and knows that there is no more of her writing to appear, does the full understanding break in of the rareness of her genius. Her like cannot come again in this age, nor can we in our generation find a way back to, that sheltered world where her sensitive being, self-conscious to the' tips of the fingers, found its awareness. She was the fine product of Victorian Liberalism, living on when its cruder energies had been exhausted, holding faith in the individual life, and discovering in her Actions a freshly-fashioned way of defining the individual's impact on life.

She and her art could only have flourished in a world of physical security. Supremely ner, gave me many moments of pleasure ana amusement. Why? 1 suppose because it is -contemporary and alive, whereas Sir William's dispatches, for all their integrity, are now but pale ghosts of the eveut, as transient as their fading ink and yellowing paper. Mr. Furneaux quotes them ad and 1 am sure that England or father those 51.000 Englishmen who suuscribed to The Times at 5d.

a copy in 1852 devoured them avidly at the breakfast-table. For us they have no more than an academic interest. They strike us as remarkable in only two respects: by their singular freedom from the censorship to which we have Become conditioned, and by the tact that Russell, in spite of bis great honesty, has often on an judgment been proved wrong. History, ho doubt, may prove P(LQbDDC Odd Dotty The railways have preserved public mobility, even though the whole huge mass of war transport has been their responsibility. Without the railways there would be no family visits, no holiday travel, no business trips.

Once the Nation's war job is done the railways will set about restoring all the comfort, speed and luxury of peace time travelling. SI SI El El El El 151 151 151 151 SI 151 151 Gr (51 01 151 El 151 151 51 51 51 51 El 151 151 El 151 El El 51 51 El 51 01 01 151 151 51 151 51 51 151 151 151 151 51 El 51 51 01 51 El 01 01 01 El 01 IT would be easy, though not very profitable, to compare these two books as examples of the Old Style and the New. Sir William Howard Russell, of The Times, was the first British war correspondent; Mr. Busvine was the manager of a fashionable dressmaking business in, Hanover-square until he became, at a moment's notice on September 4, 1939, special correspondent of the Chicago Times. Sir William wrote his lengthy dispatches in ponderous and, to me, unpleasing Victorian prose; Mr.

Busvine does not write prose, in that sense, at all. Sir William laboriously sought truth at the bottom of her deep well; Mr. Busvine travels so fast that he has no time to spare for such meticulous searching. Sir William frequently indulged in Moral Indignation; whereas the only moral indignation known to Mr. Busvine is occa sioned by the refusal of the military authorities to let him go to places where he isn't supposed to go.

By every comparison, you see, the Old style wins hands down. Moreover, Sir William's leisurely, careful, and truth-seeking letters from the Crimea, from Bull Run, from Sadowa and Sedan, still provide useful sources for the historians and archivists, whereas in the very unlikely event of any future historian consulting Mr. Busvine, he will discover what kind of cocktails Mr. Busvme was drinking at any given moment, and not much more. And yet I must make a confession.

Mr. Furneaux's serious and scholarly study or The Times's great correspondent struck me as dull, while Mr. Busvine's persona', narrative, presented in a fashion rather like that of The Thin Man." only a good deal tjiin- THE time to review Nordahl Griegs work is not yet. This is a personal note, not a review. I lectured for the Anglo-Norse Society, in Oslo, 17 years ago, on India and on the English Poets of the First World War.

Nordahl Grieg was present, and was passionately interested in Rupert Brooke, Sorley, and Will Owen; he and I stayed up each night until nearly dawn talking. Grieg was even then the most famous and beloved of all Norway's younger men of letters poet, dramatist, novelist, critic, journalist. He had been an undergraduate at Oxford, which he now revisited, to write his celebrated study, The Young Dead," of Keats, Shelley, Byron, and Brooke. Sorley, Owen, which includes superb translations of their verse. His visits to Oxford continued, and he would drift in unexpectedly, a grand young Viking, full of strength and beauty.

Full, also, of pity. Contrary to common opinion, it is not always misery that makes men and women give up all for those who are wretched and oppressed. As with another dear friend of mine, Jawaharlal Nehru, "it was the realisation of his own more fortunate position (says his present editor) which aroused Nordahl Grieg's conscience to indignant and outspoken protest on behalf of tnose less happily situated. He was descended from Scots refugees from Culloden. But he loved the English tradition and deeply admired the British Navy.

A Norseman, he had the sea in his blood. He went round the world as an ordinary seaman, to learn by experience what he knew by inheritance. When we first met he was desperately sorry that Norway had been neutral in the First World War; he believed it was fought for freedom, and that his country had missed the greatest adventure of all time. The Germans invaded Norway: Nordahl told me of his astonishment as he watched them march through Oslo. That nizht he slipped off to the mountains.

wnere he fought the uudbrands-dael as a guerrilla, with no uniform but an armlet. We killed a lot of Germans." Later he reached London, having had a main hand in getting out the Norwegian Government's gold, through the fjords, to a British warship. He was now forty and might have settled down to some useful work in an advisory capacity; his words to Mr. Gathorne-Hardy, about the anti-Fascist poetry of a famous young English contempor Excursion In The Macabre The Trial. By Franz Kafka.

Seeker and Warburg. 8s. 6d.) The Sighing of the Heart. By Maritta Wolff. Michael Joseph.

12s. 6c2.) My Days of Anger. By James T. Fdrrell. (Routledge.

10s. 6o) Through Another Gate. By George Vaizey. 8s. 6d.) The Small General.

By Robert Standish. (Peter Davies. 8s. 6d.) By ALAN PRYCE-JONES I GWR LMS 01 El 01 01 01 131 la la Eta EE EE To choose a sweet course that's both suitable for children and popular with your menfolk is some times a problem. But with one of these delicious Steamed Puddings Studies In Scarlet iNOW tor inese NEW books MABEL L.

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TSCHIFFELY'S THIS WAY SOITHAYARD Illustrated. 10 6 net ODDER STOUGHTON LTD. Author of Wavell in the Middle-East" (4th Imp) MAJOR-GENERAL H. ROWAN-ROBINSON C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O. From TUNISIA to NORMANDY This book is the sequel to the author i Auchinleck to Alexander It carries the atory of the global war from the turn of the tid in November, iq42j to the middle of June, 1944 With frontispic and maps Note Ready A Chronicle of Soviet Guerilla Activity BEHIND THE FRONT LINE Lt-Gen.

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H. AUDEN For the Time Being1 This book consists of two Jonff poems with some pose pasaagea; Th Sea and ihe Mirror A Commentary on Shakespeare's The Tempest: and For the Time Being: A Chrittmas Oratorio. Mr. Auden versification and personal idiom areas vigorous as ever, but interpose less obstruction between the reader, and we consider this hts best book (excluding plays) since Tht OraiorM. 8 6 Faber Faber THF.

CIVIL SERVICE: its problems and future E. N. GLADDEN, M.Sc, Ph.D. This book alms to furnish details of th Civil Service's development, organisation and problems so that the reader may be in a better position to pass judgment on what is ever citizen's business. Price 10 6 net STAPLES PRESS Lrm -td.

5. King and 5 up ex Umitd is 3 IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS ts 13 13 IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS 13 IS IS IS IS IS 13 13 IS IS 13 IS IS IS IS 13 IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS 13 ts IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS IS LNER SR 13 3(3 EElaiaiG you can't go wrong. PUDDING )- Method Mix together flour, salt, baking powder and eggs. Rub in the fat until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add sugar, and enough liquid to make the mixture a dropping consistency.

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Mix to a soft consistency ith a little milk Put this mixture in a basin and steam 1 hour. Serve with jam or custard sauce. PEHIOD No. 9 (March 4th to H-rch 31t) W.J. FOOD FACTS No.

245 Author of Queen of the Flat-Tops," etc. STANLEY JOHNSTON THE GRIM REAPERS The author has added another vivid chapter jo hi a reporting of the war in the Pacific from the Coral Sea through the victorious conquest of Guadalcanal A dramatic story lS illustrations and 4 maps publiihed 126 Thrilling new mystery JO EISINGER THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN VC'itty and refreshinn, with a gtnxi plot and an engaging sleuth who ta really sound in his methods, this is a detective of quality bv a newcomer who is definueK worth watching Ready Tkursdav 3 6 JARROLDS Pubhiheri tLcndon) Ltd. al Read the pcial Reports published in both la nguzges on in France? Leading writers of both nations contribute to ENTENTE Every article is fully translated. Get to know France and its people! better and improve your I French -by taking out an SUBSCRIPTION' frcr FRANC0-8HITISH PU8LISHIHG CO. 3S6.

Grand Slrjrtd. Wtl in the current issue of ENTENTE fulty Illustrated i rr, copy it 3d I post I I Quite apart from their niceness, steamed puddings are nourishing, and excellent The family will feel they've really had something, when they've enjoyed a good plateful of one of these appetising and nutritious puddings. our Norwegian actors playing the pari ot a patriot under trie occupa tion, and playing it to wtien i Know aa the time that he was nothing of the sort." They prate of the great home-coming," he wrote: Of victory's shining day, When all will book their tables, And all will their flags display. But haply behind the frost-reek The sun's red glowing ball Will stand like a bleeding shot-wound: These here they are not ali! Shiuering. shy of their triumph.

May leave their feasting then Some who returned to the city Of tortured and murdered men. Nordahl to the gallant Norsemen in our midst came as a man divinely inspired. His ballads were learnt by heart and broad cast to Norway, where they became not mere words but deeds. His own deeds will one day make an immortal story. Finally, December 2, 1943, flying with a British crew as war corre spondent, he was shot down over Berlin.

Well, here are his war ballads written to hearten his exiled fellow countrymen, soldiers, sailors, airmen training to return to Norway. Read them, to learn things our island good luck has hidden from us though not from occupied Europe. They will explain to you why the men and women who have endured Fascist tyranny have been so knit bv sorrow, which all have borne, that not all the power and economic security of more fortunate nations can ever bring back the past, which must die because it deserved to die: So few we are in our country, We. are kin with all our slain; -And the dead shall be beside us The day we return again. Nordahl died alongside brave men of our own blood.

He belongs for all time to us, as well as to Norway, and this was what he would have desired. He knew us through and through, and was aware of all our flaws, but he thought us a very great people; and some of us will always be proud that he called us his friends. RICHARDSON Don't miss The Visitor, by Carl Randau and Leane Zugsmith (Gollancz, about what happens when a long-lost runaway adolescent returns to his sorrowing parents. It contains a really original surprise which I cannot indicate, and is nearly very good indeed. In Two Strange Ladies (Ward Lock, 8s.

one of the insufficiently-praised Harry Stephen Keeler's agreeably old-time rumbustious American small-town reporters investigates a fantastic murder case involving partial albinism i.e., stripes. Very pawky. Now for some English thrillers. Spy Cat oners (Gollancz, 8s. 6d.) being thirty-one shorts by Bernard Newman, needs no recommendation.

Factual verisimilitude is his forte, and the short form suits him particularly well. In The Lady With the 'Limp (Hodder and Stoughton. 8s. 6d.) and The Hounds of Vengeance (Long, 9s. Messrs.

Sydney Horler and John Creasey, respectively, deal in their separate, sweet ways one in a Sussex country mountains and all over the place-r wun post-war wazi niders-out. You' will like these. From The TVf R- HODSON is the most inde-f atigable of war-time diarists. This is Volume Six, covering his tour of the United States in the winter of 1943-4. He went across to the Pacific and down through Texas, seeing the marvels and contrasts T.V.A., Washington, and Detroit (the motor metropolis, with 1,850,000 people, is said to have 770,000 in the war factories).

Kaiser shipyards, and the rest. He talked with, and challenged, Americans of all sorts, nearly always, it would appear, winning them by his frankness and good-humour. Wherever he went Mr. Hodson found people concerned about this country and its aims, their interest being far too often rooted in suspicion, ignorance, and the strangest contradictions. Thus, Britain must be going Red, while yet, being a monarchy, it could never be democratic.

Why were our taxes so high, seeing that these enormous revenues were drawn from the Colonies? On all hands Mr. Hodson heard the fear of America's being outsmarted by British diplomats and businessmen. This seemed to him a comic notion, but Hearst and his com- Miles From Anywhere C. HENRY WARREN ith this, his latest book, Mr. Warren completes his Essex trilogy begun with England is a Village and continued by The Land is Yours 40 line drawings bv Thomas HenneJ, A.R.

W.S. EYRE SPOTTISWOODE -( PLAIN STEAMED This is a good basic recipe for serving with jam, syrup, marmalade, custard, or flavoured sauce. Ingredients 8 oz. self-raising flour, (orr 8 oz. plain flour and 4 level teaspoons baking powder), a pinch salt, 2 oz.

fat, 2 dried eggs, dry, 2 oz. sugar, milk, or milk and water to mix just over pint). Mr. Busvine also to have been very frequently wrong: to have been mistaken, as Russell often was. over matters of tact which he witnessed with his own eyes.

For there are a great many ways of looking at things, and the nearest-view is not necessarily the truest. So we are back to the question of truth at the bottom of her well; and we are forced to the conclusion that objective and eye-witness reporting, unless it is miraculously impregnated with that undeflnable preservative which we call great art, bequeaths to posterity a picture which is not only faded but is often false. In fact, however depressing it may be for the correspondents who strive so hard in pursuit of her, the truth of the matter is that Truth belongs not to them, nor even to the historians, but to the artists; and that is a title to which neither Sir William Russell nor Mr. Busvine would lay-claim can novels founded on strict realism. In short, they aim to be Zola up to date.

Miss Maritta Wolff is in her early twenties, and her long novel of working-class life in an industrial city is a remarkable feat of observation. Some critics have found it heavy-going: its richness of character and incident, its fidelity and comparison are nevertheless outstanding; and though her colours are sombre, Miss Wolff has the essential quality in a realistic novelist of making one anxious to know what is going to happen next. So has Mr. Farrell. His Danny O'Neill is an Irish Catholic in a poor quarter, working his way through the intellectual rigours of the University and the apparently normal horrors of Catholic adolescence in Chicago.

Mr. Farrell brings in a number of unnecessary spades for the purpose of giving them blunt names, yet it is hard not to feel that the creative pulse is beating more feebly than it did. Mr. Vaizey has already written good novels notably "Guile Wears a Coronet and Through Another Gate will add to fiis reputation. It is a straightforward tale of incompatibility in marriage and of the somewhat extreme but suc-pessful remedies adopted by the victims.

This is the kind of book which is sensible without being profound, readable without distinction, and fresh without striking originality. Mr. Standish's novel of China from the establishment of the republic to present times affects one country district only, but it manages to pack a great deal of acute observation and comment within a sufficient framework -of anecdote. A pleasant and unpretentious book. All Weathers Climate Makes the Man.

By Clarence A. Mills. 7s. 6d.) IT) R. MILLS, Professor of Experl-mental Medicine' at the University of Cincinnati, has packed a prodigious variety of material into some 200 pages.

Drawing partly on his own wide travels and experiments, partly on his medical observations, and partly on extensive reading, he discusses how climate and weather affect not only human health but the characteristics -and destinies of nations. A rich flow of anecdotal reminiscence enlivens this remarkably informative volume, which includes plenty of practical advice on how to keep well under all sorts of weather conditions. C. D. Cambridge Poetry An anthology of recent Cambridge poetry, intended generally to cover the years 1940-45, is now in preparation.

It will be published by the Fortune Press.) Members of the University particularly those now in the Services who wish to submit poems for consideration, are invited to send them to Mr. Geoffrey Moore, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope. "EKING OUT THE RATION" publishers, too, are trying to eke out their paper ration of less than half their pre-war tonnage, by using thinner paper and more words to the page. But the public demand is unrationed, so please don't blame the bookseller if be cannot always supply just the book yon want at the moment. Be thankful that he still has good books to offer, antj make your choice from them.

fl. Tr Household Milk can be used for all these recipes. It should be added dry with the dry ingredients. Then add water for mixing. -( VARIATIONS of Pain VIRGINIA WOOLF her art was that of an unregi-mented society, and it may yet re call mat ireeoom to men ana women whose fate and experience are placed amid rougher issues.

That her work means much still, in a world she could not have understood, was impressed on me recently in Paris when Floris Delattre, her earliest French critic, told me how he had read her work during the German occupation, and asked for news of Mrs. Bennett's volume. Virginia Woolf has certainly been fortunate in her critics. It 'is thirteen years since Winifred Holtby wrote her generous commentary, in which biography mixed with criticism. Mrs.

Bennett has composed a firmer and more compact volume. In a closely argued appraisal of the novels she defines "their shape and their values. Seldom have I known a critic who gave so much so unpretentiously to her subject. She has effaced herself in order to do the greater justice to her theme. With a skill, which is more considerable than is at once apparent, she has made her argu ment rest on a series of quotations from the novels.

These are ample enough to make the volume an anthology of Virginia Woolf. So well are they chosen that many a reader will come from them with his sense of the quality of Virginia Woolf writing in creased. Mrs. Bennett's modesty should not disguise the merit of her own contribution. She has pursued her task with an unrelenting discipline.

For my own part I regret that she did not include Orlando with the novels. Her justification is obvious, for Orlando is a fantasy, and yet its brilliance of description and its gay exuberance are not present elsewhere. Further, can Between the Acts be understood without Orlando Plains and Peaks There will be a welcome for two new editions Mr. A. F.

Tschiffely's This Way Southward (Hodder and Stoughton, 10s. an account of a journey through Patagonia to Tierra del Fuego, and Mr. Geoffrey Win-throp Young's now celebrated book for the climber, Mountain Craft IMethuen, Both are sdmirably illustrated. Atlantic To And Yet I Like America. By J.

L. Hodson. (Gollancz. 10s. 6d.) By S.

K. RATCUFFE peers have undeniably put it over to an astonishing extent. It is not altogether America's Mr. Hodson rightly contends, that millions should believe their armies to have been fighting alone in Africa, Italy, Burma, or that Lend-Lease goes only one way. Twenty years of misrepresentation have to be overcome It's appalling that we let it drift so far," Certainly it is.

In a candid last chapter Mr. Hodson throws out some practical suggestions. Many Americans told him that flattery from this side was no good at all. Britain should not cringe, but be firm and straight, give a clear lead and keep it. Far more pains should be taken to make the real Britain known.

The right kind of correctives, he was told, ought to be got into the war plants, for there the anti-British sentiment was worst. Most important perhaps of all, the whole business of films needs to be overhauled. Mr. Hodson is convinced The Way Lies West WYN GRIFFITH A novel of farming in Wales a hundred years ago; a human story that develops with Hardy-like intensity. 8j.

6d. net Recently published: copies way still be available at some bookshops Confessions of an Un-common Attorney REGINALD HINE J. Trewin in the observer: 'Open the book where you will: it returns no dusty ansVer. Mr. Hine is as good on poets as on parish registers, upon deathbeds as on Illustrated.

1 5- net 1 Fruit Pudding. Plain steamed pudding with 2-3 oz. dried fruit added to the sugar. 2 Spice Pudding. Plain steamed pudding with 2-3 oz.

dried fruit and 2 level teaspoons mixed spice added to the sugar. 3 Chocolate Pudding. Plain steamed pudding with 3 level tablespoons cocoa and an additional to 1 oz. sugar, or syrup added to the sugar. A RICHER SPONGE PUDDING MIXTUrT TN the succession of tremendous invalids from whom modern European fiction largely springs Kafka stands by himself.

A reissue of The Trial deserves notice, therefore, if only as a mark of progress in the complete English edition of his works, among which The Castle has already appeared, likewise translated by Willa and Edwin Muir. In a brief review there is no summary judgment to be passed on such an enterprise. The publishers quote Mr. Stonier's comparison of "The Trial" to Crime and Punishment," and at least it will generally be agreed that the grands malades intervening between Dostoievsky and Kafka struck each a smaller note. Take any of them: Proust, Joyce, Lawrence, Virginia Woolf, even the Rilke of Malte Lgurids Brigge; you will find in each a constant and willing retraction behind the limiting horizon of humanity.

In Dostoievsky and in Kafka, however, this limitation is always seen as a foreground, and no more, to the elemental, forces beyond the horizon. In The Trial," for instance, the hero has no name. He is only The incidents have neither date nor place. Kafka has set his novel on the plane of the universal, and adopted undergoing trial for an unspecified offence, as a symbol for the human predicament generally. Let no-one suppose that the result is eight-and-sixpence-worth of high-flown generalities.

It is the most macabre and fascinating excursion and one to be recommended unreservedly. Both The Sighing oe the Heart and My Da.ys of Anger are Ameri- The Pacific that "Desert Victory" did immense service to the common cause, although the huge welcome given to Mrs. Miniver showed that Hollywood's England still makes a strong appeal. If misconceptions and most of the ignorance on both sides were swept away," he says, not much cause for ill will would That is a true word. He quotes with approval Santayana's judgment: They are infatuated with quantity; but there is a fund of vigour, goodness, and hope such as no nation ever possessed before." The diary is stored with good things facts, keen observation, stories, quips.

Naturally, Mr. Hodson trips at times, over matters big and little. The Catholics do not claim so large a mass of voters as 17,000,000. No American ever made futile rhyme with futtle." How many thousands more of British travellers will note with surprise that shoes are cleaned outside home and hotel, or fail to learn- in advance that if all interiors are warmed, heavy clothes in winter must be misery? The book, although enticing for reference, has neither index nor headings for chapter and page. Ready March IS THROUGH ANOTHER GATE a new novel by GEORGE VAIZEY The story of an outwardly successful marriage that became an uneasy relationship.

86 net MAN WITH WINGS Leonardo da Vinci by JOSEPH COTTIER Life-story of great painter and inventive genius. For boys and girls. Illus. net By MAURICE PHANTOM LADY, by William Irish (Hale, 8s. should go down in history as the book of the film which the script writers left almost untouched.

Its plot turns on the relentless, nightmarish framing of a young New Yorker for wife-murder. It is sometimes hideously pre-fabri-cated, e.g.: "The sky was rouge red in the west, as though It was all dolled up for a date itself, and it was using a couple of stars for diamond clips to hold up its evening gown but it moves fast, and parts of it succeed in being electrically exciting. I am afraid I shall have to ask you to read it. An English corner in between Americans who are out in some strength this week. In A Corpse Without a Clue Hodder and Stoughton.

8s. the ingenious and reliable Mr. R. A. J.

Walling sets Tolefree on to an intricate murder and disappearance case with some deep disguising and a go-ahead West of England Canon. Gripping, and at the same time snug, like a plush seat in a favourite restaurant. This Is the House (Crime Club, 8s. 6d.) is a well written who-done-it with an original West Indian setting by an intelligent new author. Shelley Smith, who should be worth watching.

Over to overcrowded Washington for Craok of Dawn (Crime Club, 7s. by Leslie Ford. (Why have they taken her photograph off the jacket?) Mrs. Grace Latham and her admirer Colonel Primrose wrestle with a complex marriage and murder tangle in their usual informal tea party style Battle Scene By ROBERT HUNTER ELEPHANT dance of twenty-five pounders. Flank to flank in the forest clearing: Clacking applause of old-maid Vickers, Over the hill-top peeping and peering.

Cromwell in armour couches his lance. And pitching and tossing with tracks a-flicker The ironside chargers form and advance In halos of dust growing thicker and thicker. Infantry move in staggered formation Like forerunner wavelets climbing the sand. Spreading and edging in every direction On tidal push of a distant hand. READERS AND WRITERS can obiam information on every kind of book, use of AO expert book inquiry bureau and lending 1ibrar, free book I tats and cataJoguev advice on reading, and many other privileges, by joining the National Book League.

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