Northern Star (Lismore, NSW : 1876 - 1954), Saturday 7 July 1934, page 15


E. V. TIMMS' New Novel

"CONFLICT"

Edward Vivian Timms was born at Charters Towers, Queensland, in 1895. He was to have been sent to England to become an officer of the Royal Navy, but the death of his father, the late W. H. Timms, R.N.R., whose mining and professional interests were widely known throughout north Queensland, altered these plans. As the history of his family is linked with the develop-ment of gold in Australia, he was taken to Coolgardie, W.A., where later his mother married the Rev. Angus King. The family came to Sydney, and it was decided that Mr. Timms should make engineering his profession, but the war interrupted his studies, and at the age of nineteen he went away with the first fleet in 1914 as Lieutenant, 1 Battalion, A.I.F. He was at the land-ing on Gallipoli, was wounded after-wards, sent to England, thence to Aus-tralia, where Sir Herbert Maitland or-dered life in the wide lands as a cure for his war disabilities. Mr. Timms

spent some years on the north coast of N.S.W., and it was there that he first began to write. Since those days his pen has been both prolific and successful, publishing both in Australia and England. His historical fiction particularly has been acclaimed.

LATEST BOOK

Mr. Timms has published nine books, as well as many serials and short stories. Three of his stories have been filmed, and Mr. E. Thring, of Mel-bourne, recently acquired the film and dramatic rights of one of his novels. His latest novel is "Conflict" (Angus and Robertson Ltd., 6s). This finely written romance sweeps the reader through a veritable high-light period of history. The theme is conflict— conflict of national polity, of individual passion, wit and existence, of daring raid and deadly sea battle, of love, of life, of the heart and of the soul. Romance, drama, spectacle, humour

all are here.

Mr. Timms has worked a vast can-vas. His graphic pen shows us the Mediterranean, Nice, Marseilles, the roads of France and England. Paris, London, and the English countryside. We witness the tragedy of the Vernet family and the trials of the humble fisher-folk, the overthrow and mas-sacre of the Moslem pirates by the galley slaves, the building of the piratical Red Fleet, the night raid on Marseilles, the sea battle of the Eng-lish and the pirate fleets, the living tomb vengeance of a woman outcast as a witch, the plague in Marseilles, the dual-personality Monsieur le Rat

trapped by his girl-aristocrat lover, the gaiety of fashionable, bejeweled Paris and the stark, starving hordes under ground, the burning of Newgate Prison in London, and blind Sir Peter Kenelm fighting throat-high in fire for the honour and life of a woman. All these

things we see, and above all the poig-nancy and sacrifice of true love.

Conflict marks a great widening in outlook of Australian authorship. Pub-lication in London has been arranged and plans are being made for its pub-

lication in New York.