THE YELLOW PIGEON. By Cannel linden Guest. (Harrap. 7s. 6d.)—Mrs.
Guest, who gave us :last year a poignant study of Southwark slum life, has turned to war-tune Belgium for the scene of her new novel. - It is only the backwash of the actual fighting- that - we see, for the story concerns a group of Belgian and English doctors, nurses, and relief-workers, as well as a few mere busybodies, behind the lines. Crystal Heath and her old school friend, a Danish girl, are two charming heroines. Yet it is mainly as a panorama that the book excels. With her vivid glimpses of officers' quarters, messes, , hospitals, caches, and the like '(many of them, we ihould imagine, drawn frorn first-hand experience), Mrs. Guest shows us the effects of war in their mingled heroism and bestiality, and the actual story itself describes absorbingly and convincingly the reactions of various normally balanced people to conditions of tense excitement and tragedy. This is a true and vital book.
Previous page
