Book Notes
Counts announce a fictionised biography of Rachel, the great French tragedienne who took both Paris and London by storm a hundred years ago. Daughter of a Jewish pedlar, Rachel contributed to the family budget, as a child, by singing in the streets with her sister. So remarkable was her personality that one day she was noticed by Etienne Choron who was so impressed by what he saw that he immediately undertook to train her, gratuitously. In 1838, at the age of seventeen, she made her d6but at the Theatre Francais, where at once her genius was immediately acclaimed. In London, where she appeared at the St. James's Theatte, she repeated her triumph, so much so that she was commanded by the young Queen Victoria to appear at Windsor Castle. She died of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-seven' famous as an actress, notorious for a series of affaires with many of the great ones of her time. Rachel is by Miss March Cost, author of A Man Named Luke.
* * * * Some years ago a book was published in this country with the title Ten Years under The Earth, written by a well-known French speleologist, Norbert Casteret. Now its sequel, My Caves, is promised by Dent. Pot-holing for M. Castaret is more a sport than a branch of scientific exploration, but it has taken him to a number of places in Europe and Africa notable only because they possess large and, preferably, inaccessible underground caverns which can
only be broached with the aid of improbable equipment like light- alloy ladders, pneumatic canoes, candles and most of the gadgets beloved by the orthodox mountaineer. He has, of course, been able to make an extensive study of the eccentric behaviour of subterranean plants, animals and even water, which apparently is most liable to behave in a strange manner. And among his special achievements he counts the tracing to its source of an underground tributary of the Garonne. But the book is not, he modestly warns the spele- ologist, " a complete manual of speleology, nor yet a compendium of the information accumulated on a very big and still largely obscure subject."
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The following note appears opposite the title page of Val Gielgud's Years of the Locust: "In view of the similarity of title, the publishers wish to announce that this book should not be confused with A. S. M. Hutohinson's,autobiography, A Year that the Locust." Con- fusion over titles cannot, of course, always be avoided in advance. Here, despite the note, the confusion appears to be actually invited ; else why not change the title before publication? The book, pub- lished by Nicholson and Watson, is the autobiography of the Director of Drama at the B.B.C. Although Mr. Gielgud has also at times earned his living as an actor and a writer, the greater part of his book is concerned with his experiences at Savoy Hill and Broadcasting House. So those who are interested in broadcasting and like to know how the wheels go round should be able to satisfy a good deal of their very proper curiosity. The author is a brother of John Gielgud and, on his maternal side, a descendant of the famous Terry family It is frequently and, be it admitted, sometimes unconvincingly asserted that crime *does not pay. Too often there appears to be obvious evidence to the contrary. Now, however, someone who is in a position to discuss the question not as a moralist but as a practical expert has come along with a book that goes even further than most, for it professes to show why crime does not pay. The author is John E. Horwell, late Chief Constable of Scotland Yard and, more recently, Assistant Provost Marshal of the R.A.F. Mr. Horwell speaks with over thirty years' experience of crime-detection, and he has written expansively on what actually happens from the moment a crime is committed, thereby starting the complicated pro- cess which leads ultimately to the apprehension of the criminal. Harwell of the Yard (Melrose), concerned solely with actual crimes, ranges over the whole scale from pickpockets to murder, from black- mail to banknote forgeries.
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Douglas Reed, who is now editor of a weekly news-letter, Tidings, has written a novel, Galanty Show, which Cape hope to publish shortly. And Michael Joseph are publishing in April The Street, a novel by Ann Petry, a coloured woman. This story of negro life in New York is a Book Society Recommendation.
G. W.
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