Shorter Notices
Fratres: Club Boys in Uniform. AU
Anthology Compiled by Basil L. Q. Henriques.
THESE books, alike in their theme of club-
work among juveniles, are in other ways almost totally dissimilar. Mr. Henriques's anthology is personal in tone ; self-revela- tion is its keynote. Miss Percival's descrip- tion of the various youth movements is a tour de force of impersonality ; the reader is left without a clue as to which has her own allegiance. Mr. Henriques's book is loose but lively ; Miss Percival's a painstaking unity. Both agree, however, in their appeal for more voluntary helpers for youth work.
Fratres (the name taken from the maga- zine of the Oxford and St. George's Club at Stepney that Mr. Henriques edited during the war), though long, is little more than half what it was originally, when, he explains, no publisher would accept it ; and it is per- haps a pity that so much has been packed into one volume. For it has three distinct parts. Forming an introduction and epi- logue is Mr. Henriques's story of his own youth ; how he was drawn into social work in London, his hesitations, his satisfactions, with a final discussion on clubs in general. Secondly, there is an intensely interesting collection of short extracts, arranged some-
times neatly to contradict each other, from letters sent by club boys in war-time. They cover all experiences of war—initiation routine, journeys, battles, attitude to Ger- mans—and some are surprisingly well- written or have a rough humour: "There is only one thing wrong with India, and that is that it is above sea-level." This sec- tion, with the addition of other, passages that have been deleted, would make a read- able and evocative book on its own. Finally, there is a discussion of the place of Jewry in the modem world, which, in spite of its high moral tone, perhaps a little because of it, is of a much more limited appeal.
Miss Percival's book is mainly history, beginning with youth work in feudal times, antl following the great movements, particu- larly of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is full of information about those organisations which, have become part of daily life without the public having much idea of their origins, the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. the Scouts, the Lads' Brigades. In spite of its conscientious marshalling of facts, there is a certain uni- formity about it induced, perhaps, by the lack of criticism, of humour and of personal experience. It ends with a tactful appraisal of the Government's part in assisting youth work, and concludes, with Mr. Henriques, that the voluntary worker is still important.
It is perhaps curious that Fratres, which concerns one Jewish club, is very much for the general reader. while Youth Will Be Led, with its wide sweep of history, will probably be mainly read by social workers and
Previous page
