CURRENT LITERATURE
GONE ABROAD.• By Douglas Coldring. (Chapman and
Hall. 12s. fid. net.)
GUSTO and a broad humour are the prevailing characteristics of Mr. Goldring's impressions of a sojourn in the Balearic Islands, a fortnight's visit to Middlesbrough-on-Tees, and a return home, after long absence, to find London swarming with pirate 'buses and Regent Street in course of metamor- phosis. There is nothing subtle in Mr. Goldring. He can convey a general impression adequately enough ; but when he is specially moved, as by the spectacle of Valldemosa in moonlight, he can only say : " It was one of those moments, quite indescribable in their emotional effect, which cannot be achieved by taking thought." The little annoyances and surprises of travel, and some of the odder specimens of humanity
encountered, offer best scope for his particular type of humour, whose quality may fairly be indicated by his remarks upon Middlesbrough : " The accidents of friendship took me in the August of 1924 to this most fantastic and incredible of town- ships, and when I look back on my visit I am still dazed and incredulous. It can't really be true, not really ! But I ant assured that I am suffering from no hallucination." A pleasant and readable, if not a striking or original, book.
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