Some Books of the Week
Mu. H. W. TIMPERLEY'S English Scenes and Birds (Cape, 6s.) is a book first to be dipped into when one is on holiday, and then to be reread without hurry on winter evenings. It is a book, as Mr. H. J. Massingham says, in an introduction refreshingly free from the flattering stuff that too often distinguishes such advertisements, "of small compass, of no great wealth of incident, play of imagery or range of emotion, but within its own sphere, suffused with an amber glow, it is exquisitely true and rare." Mr. Timperley has the light and lovely touch of an artist in two mediums : he paints his scenes in imagination even as he recalls them in terms of language ; and very rare indeed are writers with such percep- tion of subtle qualities in colour, such an effortless manner of conveying landscape effects. He is at his best in describing orchard country—the little shining orchards of the Cotswold Hills, with their flocks of chaffinches and tits—water scenes and distant horizons ; or he will convey some memory of a bird seen at close quarters with such clear truth as this : "On a grey wagtail's springtime plumage colour lies like a bloom that looks as though it could be dusted off as easily as the powder which colours a butterfly's wing." The essays are concerned chiefly with scenes and birds of the western shires ; and their author has succeeded—here is surely a strong enough recommendation for discriminating readers—in putting into a delicate and musical prose much of that magic of Shropshire springs which Mr. A. E. Housman captured for all time in his
poetry. * * * *
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