A Hilltop on the Marne. By Mildred Aldrich. (Constable and
Co. 4s. 6d. net.)—Although the writer of this book (we assume it to be a record of fact) was living at her delightful house- at Huiry, near Quincy, when the war broke out, and tells us that she saw the smoke of the guns_ and heard the firing of the. fighting en the Marne, the reality of war never seems to get into its pages. We read of her dispensing tea and cakes to numbers of exuberant English " Tommies," providing hot baths for muddied and exhausted sections of the British Army, housing French refugees, and giving accommodation to charming French and English officers and listening to their stories of the battlefield. Yet the whole thing reads more like a novel or a play than a record of actual experience. As some one remarks to her : You can always say that you had front row stage box," which appears to us to describe the tone of the book exactly. We are bound to take Miss Aldrich's word for Lim, but the British officer who calls her " Dear little lady " and gives her " one of his rare smiles " seems to belong to the realm of fiction rather than to the British Army now in the field. The book is well written, and some readers will perhaps find it all the more enjoyable in that it is entirely free from any thrill of war.
Previous page
