7 MAY 1927, Page 26

CHILDREN OF THE FOG. By Carmel Haden G (Harrap. 7s.

6d.)—The heroine of this novel of South is Joan Butcher, an illegitimate child whose sensitive contrasts vividly with the prevailing sordidness of her en ment. Her step-father is a drunken blackguard, who treats his wife and his own children, but who is indulgent Joan. Her childhood, illuminated only by her frien with a boy who is killed in the War, is melancholy enough, is also her later life as a munition worker. After the Arm she enjoys a few happy years as a nurserymaid, while, fi she becomes an artist's model, and is seduced by her empl a married man whom she truly loves. We take leave of in hospital, where she dies after an " accident " that was murder on the part of her step-father, whose jealousy has aroused by her surrender to the artist. Mrs. Guest has us a good plot and a gripping story.. She has at the time produced a comprehensive and intimate picture London slum life, which should stir the conscience of es thoughtful reader.