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Books of the Week.

iTunis and Carthage. I

NORMA LORIMER has quite a plea-

sant manner of writing travel «ketches. In her book, "By th» AA'aters of Carthage" (Stanley Paul), the narrative is told in a series of letters from a wife to her husband, and the method enables Hie author to adopt a chatty style that would not be so easy in a direct travel narrative. She has previ- ously written "By Hie AVatcrs of Egypt," and "By the AA'aters of Sicily"; and ir. her latest book she writes vividly of Tunis and Carthage, the Moors, and their customs. Running through the book is the story of the life of an Englishwoman who was married to a Moor, and ' the the reader will feel a thrill of pleasure on knovving that she was rescued by another Englishwoman, the writer of the, letters, and "la petite Belge," a sport-loving Bel- gian woman. In this book there ia none of that esoteric glamour that one finds in the desert novel. Norma Lorimer knows the Moor and the Arab, and she writes of them as she knows them. The sketches' are lively, graphic, and well illustrated.

A Cheerful Invalid.

i'fTVÏÏE Idle Hours of a Victorious In

' valid," by Lane Cranford (Chapman and Hall!, arc the experiences, reflections, and meditations of a patient w-ho nppears to have spent more than a fair share of his time on the operating table, in the nursing home, and the convalescent home by the seaside, and through it all managed to remain cheerful and philosophic. Even in -he darkest moments Mr. Crauford had his ears ready to hear a good joke; and, although he says his li anils are "red w-ith the blood of murdered time," he has provided a book that might be of great value in helping other patients along the weary road back to health.

Organic Evolution.

MR. J. E. WILLIAMS, in a book entit-

led "In Search of Reality" (Duck- worth), traces many of the ills of modern life to tho material- ism of modern science. Apparent- ly it is his object to expose th» cause of trouble, and lie proposes to do 60 in two volumes. The present volume treats of organic evolution, and the next will deal with psychology. It consists very largely of a ma« of selected quotations all deftly dovetailed together and used to support his theories. One of his objects appears to bo to prove that man alone has the heritage of im- mortality, all other races in the animal kingdom being doomed to extinction.

Miss Beach-Webb.

JA BOUT four months ago a book called

"The Honourable Pool" (Ward, Look, and Co.) was reviewed in this pago. The theme of the book is that an educated man sella himself into life'long servitude as a valet for a cash payment of £1000, avith which he saved his honour and that of his much-loved sister. The employer at times appears to be an irreclaimable ead, but "the honourable fool" himself is

a distinctly lovable person, and in the end he avina his employer's» confidence as ho will win. the admiration of reader«. That was the purport of the review that was published. At the time there was -nothing to indicate that the author, MitT H. Beach-Webb, had any local associa- tion. It is avith much pleasure, therefore, that one finds she is a Brisbane girl, n resident of Redcliffe, and that she has a second hook ready for the publishers, avhicli avili necessitate another trip to England. Mass Beach-Webb's mother is an Australian, but her father, who died when she was a child, was English. From girlhood she avas destined by Nature to travel the "inky way," and it is inter- esting to noto that the first story pub- lished over her own name was in "The -> Queenslander." Since that time "The

Queenslander" has been fortunate in se- curing many of her stories.. Mists Beach Webb, however, prefers the full length novel, and "The Honourable Fool" wac- her first voyage into the depths of the 80,000 word fiction. 'She sent the manu- script to London to Ward, Lock, and Co.. and after her arrival in England the book avas published; and immediately, became a success. For the manuecript of her second novel, "Complex Souls." Mies Beach Webb has had an offer, with a re- quest that she should cable a re- illy. It is probable, however, that she will leave thnt in abeyance until she. goes to England at an early date. .It ia worthy of note that four Brisbane women within very recent date have made their mark in fiction. Mrs. Forrest, with her "Wild Moth," and Miss Zora^ Cro.* with two novels to her credit, have.'estab lished for themselves a place in fiction as avell as in poetry*,'. Miss May PatenV "Frances of the Farm" gives promise of even greater work in the future, and M 1*1 Ileach-Webb now joins them as a very charming delineator of character. Of our newest novelist. Miss Beach-AA7ebb, it -must be 6aid that she has achieved sue cc*fl with a character whom lesser re- straint and lesser artistry might easily Lave made a prig and a bore. It is the ifstraint and tho artistry in the charao aer of "the honourable fool" that has made

the book such a success -ind lier reads' ai will look ioiward to the carlj publica ton of "Complet Sonia," which fiom the opening chuptei, vvill breathe an Mistral ian atmosphere

E L. Grant Watson.

JJR il L &R\Nr WAI SON'S no«

novel u, staged m (he same count!v tt "Hie Desert lí-ri/on ' and 'Innocent Des re« ' tint is, in the debert countij o XoithvvCot Viibtralia 'Dilmon" tJonatlun Cape) boara a strong fnm l> -osombhnce to both, jet it is a bct.e novel than cithei because the nulhoi is i better ciaft"in-in, nnd lins learned the lite of icstraint "Daiinon" tells the sto j it Mnitin O Brien (tlio jouugster who ruvei-hed the deoert vvith hit. hi other and i stci after lite mother's death to lind

he .fithei) and Ina English wife, and «.pues little of the giucsome horror of 'he Englishwoman who resolutelj refused to toleiate the desert country so gteat'j» loved bv her husband It is reollj i eton ot el-lulling wills, of the horror wlncn loneliness» can bleed, and the insistent ea'i of wide open spaces It in not a , casant book, but it u> a powcrfullv

vnttcn one

Elmer Davis.

'ÍJHE Kejs of the Citj" (Methuen) te

a novel of smnlltovvn life, and, Although the scene is laid in Ameuc-i, E'mci Davis hat, so skilfully drawn those tvpco that are for all times and of n'l s nil towns The plot is oxceedinglj illili«!, but from the moment that the

render is introduced to Nick Rexford, to Cny Sellais and to the chief citizen (St Kimo Penco), whose "hustle and pep" have made the little struggling tom into a citj of some importance theie is rut a dull moment in the storj. Sellirs' compilait that Pence han made the town "iii hit, own image" is not nt nil out of order, and the author humorously de p ctH the decline and fall of the Pence influence "

Emmeline Mon ison,

.RMMELINE MORRISON'S neti novel,

'Swept by the Uide" (Hutchinson), « i compelling story of a joung gul'i. «.nuiigle against ovei whelming odds Sjlvta Catv el assistant m a Rondtstieet shop, becomes a favourite guet>t m a ceuntrj house where sho is recognised a-, a well known notices of doubtful repu tallon who had left the stage It seems rallier a hopcle->3 situation, and Hie evi

dence appeals too sttong to be swept ni ide Rut the author piepnrca a clever

hUipnse

Horace J Simpson

fPHE authoi of "The Hope ot the

Stable ' Mr Iloiace J Simpson, Tit, been acelanned as a second Nit Gould ind judging fj oin lins c« citing otoiv of horses atld nces theie is a good deal of iriouml foi the claim \ po nt in Mi Simpson's favour ii» his einlj vviitten mrtative tvlteicns Nat Gould win wo it to wean his renders by his e\tiem lv jeil.j stvle 'Hie Hopo of the Stable" i» a woutlet hoi-BC on whom the foi time» ot an old-iacing fimilj hung, and Ino ttu-hor sketches an inteiee-ting talc of I i

tu f of intrigue and of cunio of dcepiv cNCiting ncct- and of good sportsmen tint makes a rend iblo stoij

Cecil Adair.

rpllLRE is an Old Woild fmginnce about

Cecil \duu nt tunes that is quite p'itioiut to meet MMnspeiing irees" stanlej Paul) is ee&entiallj a. ' Ceeil Ulan ' stoiv with an Old Woild ntnio« pheie not nlto^etliei convincing when tue piesent post wai conditions; aie du cussed Hovvcvet, the stntj concerns Bal

baia St Maur an English gul who liri« lived in lillico ncaily all her life, and lo« ng her lelatives dilling the war finds fi lends on a clmrmin'ï Mediterranean island 'J he authoi is im nimbly a little too ecstatic, and a little too leisuielv i c t np- a wor'd which it, cm ion lv out

¡>ice to dm, but n iliiionsv elmming vto K1 v hcio tlio women are nevei

ninglcd and a egaictlo » mply isn t

done '

A Chesb Book.

"r-HESS, "«Hep bj fslep ' bv I rank T ^ 'Mar»linll and ICH Mntbeth (Huist and Ulnekett), is m in usii illv in ler«ting book of the panic both of the mllion, being famous in the chess woild J ho book ojoiis nilli the elcmcnttrv pim eiple« and pioceeds to easv and p'cnsing stages to the 1 eenest stintegj of the gnuie, iib the idvice being lllu tt ited bv dmgnm It ia a book that is lil oh to become \eij popular with ehcii« piners

National Gallery

.XTOURS- in the Nation ii Gallery" In

J"LStevvait Dick (End woith) is a verv fine well lllusti ited linnd hook of the pié-

tines-of the difieient schools m the I!iiti«h Nation ii Cilleiv "Mr Tilt 1 is the official lectniei io tlio gallen mel the book has been published in m-pnn-o to the lrquct« of Uiii-e who have henel his talks' and wished loi some poininnoiil recoid ot

the n

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