ENCHANTED WAYS By John Prioleau
The highest compliment one can pay this book, Enchanted Ways (Dent, 5s.) is to say that it puts the individualist, whether pedestrian or motorist, into a 'state of minor panic. We all have our private places scattered throughout the land, lanes which we have ourselves discoVered, villages which lie well away from the beaten tracks untouched by the main road processions. Our 'annoyance when others penetrate these fastnesses is acute ; We have come to regard them as our own private property. Another car approaches ours on some abandoned South Down track, and we are indignant. Is it the prelude to the mob's invasion, or is it an isolated eccentric ? We try to be charitable • the fellow driving looks decent enough ; but—oblivious of our own—why can't people keep their cars on the main: road ? - After reading this delightful little book we realize that the intruder was probably Mr. Piioleau. From now on, indeed, we shall assume anybody we meet in some especially favoured spot to be Mr. Prioleau. He has an unrivalled knack of finding out hidden places and deserted roads. He knows his England too well. What is. particularly pleasant about his writing- is that it is not con- cerned exclusively with show-places. He does not treat the countryside, as so many do, as a spectacle, but as a place to be in ; he loves it for its own sake. That is not to say that he cannot appreciate a view ; in fact, he might have been a little more discreet about views. We know that a certain view he mentions is " one of the finest of the South " ; but need everybody know ? Really, in spite of the excellence of this book as an intimate guide to - the length- and breadth of Britain, in spite of our admiration for Mr. Prioleau's taste and pleasant manner, we cannot honestly wish it the success it deserves. For all that, we are afraid that it will achieve it.
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