18 MAY 1944, Page 22

Rural Amateur. By Clifford Hornby. (Collins. 8s.6d.) IF Mr. Hornby's

book had been less discursive it would doubtless have had to omit many entertaining incidents, but it might have gained in character. The author, who was a film photographer and now seems about to become a farmer, has travelled much and had his share of ups and downs ; but somehow it is just this variety that detracts from the final appeal of his book. He knows so much about birds that it seems a pity he did not here confine himself to this one subject. On the almost forgotten art of falconry, for instance, he is extraordinarily knowledgeable ; and indeed most of his bird observations, from owls to herons, are as freshly told as they are illuminating in fact. But he has felt compelled to bring into his story not only his travels, but village pub talk and his own reactions to country life ; and these matters, though described with astringency and not a little modesty, can, hardly fail to hinder what for many must be the main interest of the book. Perhaps one day, if the rigours of farm-work allow, Mr. Hornby will write another and more unified country book. It should make good reading ; for he is representative of that new breed of men whose urban training, so far from weakening their appreciation of the rural life and scene, has only served to strengthen it. Such men, with their alertness, their adaptability and their unsentimental eye, may well be the leaven of the new agricultural England after the war.