SAILING
Sailing South American Skies (Barker, 7s. 6d.) is an account of a passenger- plane trip round South America, but apart from the chapter from which the book takes its title Mr. Childers might have travelled by any other means, for his book is simply a collection of journalistic " stories gathered at his principal stopping places. It was the author's first visit to South America, and his impressions show that he has an eye for news rather than the sen- sibility of a good observer. He flew from Mexico down the Andean coast to Chili, then across to Uruguay and up the east coast to the West Indies, and deals briefly with the more surprising sides of South American politics, industry, people and living conditions. He is most interesting when writing up some such topic as the collection of chicle (the main ingredient of chewing- gum), the queer habits of the llama, or the even queerer social life of Panama. His style at its best has a certain curt vigour, at its worst—as in the de- scription of a bull-fight in Mexico City— it has the sentimental too-full-for-words appeal of the worst pseudo-Hemingway.
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