THE BLACKTHORN WINTER. By Philippa Powys. (Constable. Os.)—Miss Powys has
selected some romantic material for a first novel, in which she tells the story of Nancy, a country girl, who, unable to resist the charm of a gipsy, deserts her blacksmith lover and takes to the life of the road. There is nothing particularly striking either about the plot, which is as natural as life, or about the characters. Nancy is the everlasting dairymaid of fiction, fair-haired and graceful. Walter, the blacksmith, might have stepped straight out from the shadow of the spreading chestnut tree ; and the gipsy is as swarthy, attractive and blackguardly as all his counter- parts in fiction. The charm of the book lies in its atmosphere —a heavy, slow, earthy atmosphere—and in the power of the author to conjure up country sounds and scents and scenes to such an extent that we almost cease to be readers and become participants in the story. We, too, wander down thickly hedged lanes, are terrified by thunderstorms, and share in Nancy's horror at the sight of a dead foal. The life of the road and the habits of the gipsies are also most admirably described, and though we can guess from the very beginning that Nancy's adventure will lead her from misery to misery, our interest is not spoiled by anticipation. To divulge the end of the book, whose cleverness lies in its truth, would be unfair to the author : it is enough to say that it is so natural as to be really startling.
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