Shorter Notices
Good English : How to Write It. By G. H. Vallins. (Andre Deutsch. 15s.) GOOD books about the writing of English ought to be received with gratitude and read with attention. Style, purity and elegance, the manners of the well-bred and the well-educated, are things delightful in themselves and of the utmost value in the formation of a shapely mind. It may be thought that we have already a sufficient number of books on the practice of letters, but I do not know of one which is much better than this excellent work by Mr. G. H. Vallins. Without any fuss or over- loading, he manages to give the earnest reader almost everything that is necessary ; and there are many writers, even among the most eminent, or at least among the most popular, who, if they could bring themselves to read this book, would be not a little sur- prised, humiliated and enlightened. Who does write good English ? Specimens of bad English are taken by Mr. Vallins from seven of our well-known papers and periodicals. He might equally well have chosen a dozen of the most famous of our modern novels. It is perhaps impossible to write a hundred consecutive sentences which are invulnerable to the probing attacks of a watchful grammarian. Even in Their Finest Hour Mr. Churchill has not invariably written the finest English.
Mr. Vallins is eminently sensible. Many writers will be glad to know that the English subjunctive is " a mood of the mind " ; but I must say that I cannot accept Mr. Vallin's defence of " try and do "—a most obnoxious little grammatical bastard. I should also be glad to know what Mr. Vallins means by " reviewer's English." No doubt he is thinking of journalistic " reviewing " (as it is called) in the people's papers. But, although Mr. Vallins himself does not always clear the hurdles in good style, his book is useful, entertaining and well-designed. I hope it will serve to admonish or deter the scribbling booby and encourage the honest craftsman.
C. E. VULLIAMY.
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