WITH THE CORNERS OFF By Commander A. B. Campbell
Commander Campbell is already well known to a large public from his broad- cast talks ; his book (Harrap, 8s. 6d.) is written in much the same vein. It is a collection of excellent yarns spun to- gether on the very twisted thread of his adventurous life, or rather lives,' for he seems to have as many as the proverbial cat. In his career as Canadian lumber- man, trapper, accidental down-and-out, ship's officer and publisher, Commander Campbell seems to have acquired the knack of meeting out-of-the-way people. He was, for example, initiated into the secret rites of a Red Indian tribe, assisted at the legalised killing of a madman who first nearly murdered him ; and as purser in the Orient Line he came in for more than his fair share of curious pas- sengers, from eccentrics to crooks. As an R.N.R. officer he WZ.3 put in charge of some of those incomparable but bois- terous fishermen who manned the North Sea minesweepers. Then he sailed in the ' Otranto,' with a crew partly " shang- haied " by himself, to keep a weary patrol in South American waters ; on her way home she and most of her crew were lost in a disaster which is described with terrible vividness and effect. This is perhaps the best of many good stories told in the book.
Previous page
