26 MAY 1928, Page 26

PAPER MONEY. By George Blake. (Constable. 7s. 6d.) —Scotland has

not lacked its romantic interpreters. But in Mr. Blake it has at last found its realist. Mr. Blake's latest novel fulfils the promise of Young Malcolm. The hem is Matthew Faed, who, of Galway shepherd origin, has risen to modest comfort as a Clydeside engineer. The War finds him middle-aged and settled in his humble routine. But his small business is absorbed into a big firm of Admiralty con- tractors, and he becomes a profiteer against his will. The story describes the not very desirable reactions of prosperity upon his ambitious but uncultivated wife and his four children. The inseparable comedy and tragedy of real life are poignantly_ realized ; the characters are all vital studies ; and the literary style is a model of unobtrusive distinction-