This and That
Georgian Afternoon. By L. E. Jones. (Rupert Hart-Davis, 21s.)
Doctor Goes North: Scotland Revisited. By George Mair. (Peter Owen, 2 Is.) With Lions by my Side. By Paulette Lloyd Greame. (Hutchinson, I8s.) BY all the rules, the third volume of Sir Lawrence Jones's memoirs should be as chilling as its title. A bare list of the topics with which he deals is enough to make one yelp with indignation—life in the City, life in the Army, deer-stalking, partridge-shooting, holidays in the South of France, country houses in Norfolk. Is it possible to find material for an autobiography in the appearance of some horrible stockbroker, the habits of an eccentric old Scottish landowner, or the conversation of a Norfolk hostess? But as all who have read his first two volumes will know, Sir Lawrence does not obey the rules. For one thing he writes quite superbly, in a poised, lucid prose which can make the most trivial person or incident seem significant. He can bring a character to life with an economy that takes the breath away. He is a master of a most unnerving irony, and just as one is painstakingly climbing the lad- der towards a definite criticism, he will remove the last four rungs, leaving one suspended fool- ishly in mid-air. But perhaps the quality which one admires most is the sharpness of his wit, which as often as not is directed against himself.
The book, of course, has its limitations. Sir Lawrence is a cautious writer and he rarely ven- tures upon controversial ground. When he does, his opinions and theories invariably strike me as superficial. His remarks on pacifism, for instance, seem to be so much nonsense. (He contends that 'a true pacifist will always fight to defend the peace he cherishes.') And one wishes he had told us a little more about himself and a little less about his business associates; the last chapter, which is the most personal, is also the most interesting. But within its limitations this book is a small masterpiece.
Doctor Goes North, by George Mair, is an incoherent jumble of information about Scot- land. While the sheer weight of abstruse facts assembled is quite impressive, the book has no literary merit whatsoever. However, I suppose it could be faintly useful as a travellers' guide, keeping you right on important bits of etiquette like not eating a Colquhoun with. your knife when dining with the MacGregors of Glen Fruin.
Paulette Lloyd Greame is an unusual woman who has a thing about lions. With Lions by my Side tells how her lifelong ambition 'to keep a lion that could share my life' was fulfilled.
WILLIAM DONALDSON
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