19 JANUARY 1924, Page 21

In The Finger Post Mrs. Henry Dudeney takes for her

principal character a man who is mentally abnormal. Joseph Durrant, with whose birth the first chapter is concerned, is the son of a thatcher living on the Weald of Sussex, and, owing to the pre-natal cruelty of his grandmother to his mother, is born without the heritage of Durrant health and sanity. As a background to the painful analysis of his psychological processes we have delightful descriptions of the Weald. As usual, the author gives her readers the authentic feeling of the country, the beauty of the long-continued heritage of agricultural occupation and the delight of the sequence of the seasons. These two varying themes make the novel interesting reading, though people who like sanity will 'find it painful.