15 MAY 1936, Page 40

Mr. Eyre-Walker is one of those people who cannot settle

' dovni. A Vdrkshireinan by birth, he has lived and worked in various parts of the- globe, mostly. as a fanner, and at odd times turned his restless hand to writing. He has a good, hearty style,' unpolished and unsophisticated, and Rolling On ,(Seeley, Service, Ills. 644 is an amusing string of yarns. . It starts authe point where he joined the staff of Coldstream Ranch; in the prairies of British Columbia. The hundred or so hands calledi.it Deadbeat's. Paradise "-and they should -have known. r Though the ingredients are the same, the life he deseribeS is much tougher and-less &Morons- than in a Western film. Such incidents as the- Drunks's Sports and the three-day 'non-stop, drinking bout would hardly ,pass -the censor. Mr. Eyre-Walker then moved to Virginia; commissioned by his employer to find and buy a farm. The one he chose. turned out to be haunted-'--and the credulous may read of the piano that played Scales of its own accord. Finally he tried to set .up-as 'a'farrner in New Zealand; with hii wife, five children and £200. Luckily, his family seem to have had the same zest • fcir roughing- it as- himself,' for; in spite of finding it impossible to make a living out of small-scale farming, they obviously. -had the "'knack -of extracting - enjoyment from eireomstances, that would have driven less resourceful people to despair. - -