'THE EMERGENCY MAN. By Edmund Candler. (Cape.. is. 6d.. net.)There
is something quite. peculiar about the stories of the late Mr. Edmund Candler. He adopted an, unhurried, confidential manner, and in fact told one a great deal about. a story instead of telling it straight out. Gaps ale left,_ purposely. Sometimes he seems prosy, though thiS comes chiefly froin -the style—there are many linked phrases, lively enough in conversation., but 'Without vocal inflection somewhat flat.
Almost all the tales are of out-of-the-way places, Provence or India, and told with all the familiarity and something a the under-emphasis.-of- one • so accustomed to regimental - dubs, Pathans and frontiers that he takes for granted certain things which to the uninitiated require explanation.
-One. or two of the stories, such as Bogle, are sensitive but plotless sketches. The Emergency Man itself is a double- barrelled _story," vew. finely- contrasting. two distinct, almost opposite types of courage. One of the heroes is the un- spectacular, Empire-building sort. The other is a young "ace " killed in the War, and while the narrator of the talc obviously Prefers the former, he does justice to ' both. and with full emotional effect.
Previous page
