GOING NATIVE
By Erie Muspratt
Mr. Muspratt has not done it again. Perhaps it is unfair to expect a writer to retain the spontaneity and genuine unconventionality of his first careless works. Mr. Muspratt was once a penni- less adventurer, but no one could ask him to remain penniless, even though he might write better books. One could, however, point out that a rough account of a rough existence is one thing and a rough account of financed adventures another. Going Native (Michael Joseph, 12s. 6d.) confirms one's suspicions that writers of travel books and their pub- lishers are becoming a little bit careless and over-confident. An uncritical public may be to blame, and certainly in the present case only a writer who believed that "they'll lap it up so long as it has sufficient ' body ' " would have turned out such a jumble of incidents—sailing, womanising, boozing, going native for a while between smart parties in the West Indies, and other tough occupa- tions—and called it a book ; and called that book Going Native.
The publishers of the set of gramo- phone records, reproducing the songs of birds, and the companion book on the subject, which were reviewed by Sir William Beach Thomas in his article last week, are Messrs. H. F. and G. Witherby, Ltd., 326 High Holborn, London, W.C. 1.
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