July 12, KJ17 
LAND & WATER 
Books to Read 
By Lucian Oldershaw 
15 
PLACE to the senior service ! Here are true tales of 
many ships in many places, whiclr have the im- 
primatur of Admiral Jelhcoe. It is the proper thing 
of course, to call such a volume of reminiscences 
"breezy," but that is not exactly the adjective 1 should apply 
to Capt. A. R. Wonham's Spun Yarns of a Naval Officer, 
(P. S. King and Son, Ltd., los. 6d. net.) I should call it a 
well-informed book if that were not almost as unfortunate in 
its implication as calling the author well-intentioned. Both 
epithets would no doubt be true, but they would only be the 
half-truth. Capt. Wonham, after long years of service, writes 
of happenings he has shared in (starting with the saving 
of Gordon at Shanghai) on the seas that he has helped to 
rule. It is not merely the informative that attracts in such 
a book ; it. is its authority and point of \n&\\.' The changes 
in the Navy since i860 have been almost inconceivably great. 
It is interesting to follow them through the eyes of one who for 
many years was intimately concerned in their changes. There 
are also many side-lights on the little affairs of the Empire in 
Spun Yarns. The Navy, we find, is generally involved in 
such matters. 
* * * * ♦ 
The Army, especially to-day, is inclined to be more articulate 
than the Navy ; but, even among the rather bewildering 
number of books of its class, Yeo's Soldier Men (John Lane, 
3s. 6d. net.) stands well out for its individual and effective 
work. " Yeo " presents a series of studies, couched in the' 
form of fiction, but obviously based on first-hand experience 
of the men and incidents on active service, chiefly in Egypt. 
Little points of psycliology, the moods and tensions of the 
mind when under the pecular strain of modern fighting, are the 
thingsthat chiefly appeal to hiai, and in such studies as "2nd 
Lieut. Vereker," and "The Unsatisfactory Third," are extreme- 
ly well done. I especially liked the study of Spinks, the man 
of ideas, who during his time of training, longed so eagerly 
to get to the front to put those ideas into execution. When 
he got out his disappointment with the conditions of active 
service, as compared with ti aining, may be summed up in the 
plantive expression ; " There ain't the scope some-'ov/." 
* * * * if 
Count Chedomille Mijatovich was formerly Serbian Minister 
for Foreign Affairs. He has been Envoy Extraordinary and 
Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James's, Con- 
stantinople, Bucharest, and the Hague. When such a 
personage thinks he can "give some authentic and impartial 
contributions to the historical study of the antecedent cir- 
cumstances wliich finally developed into war," one naturally 
opens one's ears, remembering too that it was in Serbia that 
the spark was kindled that led to the present conflagration. 
If one does not find in The Memories of a Balkan Diplomatist 
(Cassell and Co., i6s. net.) quite all one expects to find, for there 
are some marked reservations in the Count's apparently 
candid narrative, especially as he reaches the year 1914, yet 
the book is certainly not merely of the utmost value as an 
historical document, but has also great interest, romantic, 
personal and national, in other directions. The book opens 
with a fascinating account of the author's mother, who, 
among other claims to interest, was a young girl kidnapped 
by a witch and remained for some years an assistant in the 
latter's magic rites. That is not the sort of opening one 
expects in a book by a European diplomatist. The Count 
himself is a spiritualist, and among other manifestations 
describes how a mediurri at a seance arranged by the late 
Mr. Stead foretold the murder of King Alexander and Queen 
Dragaso clearly that the' King's' Minister in London, as the 
Count then was, sent him an express warning, which was 
intercepted by his enemies. Even apart from such highly 
sensational matter, however, these Memoirs would attract 
attention from the extremely life-like sketches they contain 
of many of the chief actors in Balkan affairs during the last two 
generations, and the author wins our regard by the fine quality 
of his patriotism. The spirit of Kossovo inspires his pen. 
* * * « * 
Very few novehsts have really succeeded in giving a truthful 
picture of stage-life. Such as have done so have provoked 
an immediate charge of hbel from members of " the " pro- 
fession, which is! not because a truthful Study of an actor 
is necessarily ugly, but because the idealism of .the average 
actor is so strongly developed as to prevent him from |iecogniz- 
ing his own portrait. Mr. Keble Howard in The Cay Life, 
(John Lane. 6s. ) appeals to the sentimental side of this 
idealism. His picture perhaps errs as much on one side as 
that of " the sex-specialist," whom he denounces, errs on the 
other side. But as far as providing a healthy, readable and en- 
tertaining story is concerned, he errs on the right side. His 
Jilly Nipchin is a distinct creation and will win tlie hearts of 
the novel-reading public for many a long month to come. 
In the slang of the moment, she certainly " makes good." 
* 4: * * * 
"This volume of entertaining tales and sketches must 
finish my selection of fiction for the week. Miss Blanche Wills 
Cliandler has collected into book form, under the title of 
Tommies Two (Sampson Low, Marston and Co., 3s. 6d. net), 
some of the fugitive pieces in which she has shown herself 
a sort of literary Bairnsfather of the troops seen from this 
side of the water. The collection was well worth making. 
Miss Chandler has very real sense of humour, as witness 
The Born V.C. and The Sleeping Soldier. 
In the current number of The Hibhert Journal much 
space is devoted to Reconstruction ; writers who contribute 
to this section include Professor James Ward, Dr. Crozier, 
Mr. J. A. K. Marriott, MP., and\he Countess of Warwick. 
But the articles which wall in our opinion attract the widest 
attention, are three dealing with the ever-present mystery 
of the Hereafter. The Dean of St. Paul's writes on _" Sur- 
vival and Immortality." His language is obscure and his 
meaning lacks the lucidity which, in the opinion of the 
writer, the subject demands. Needless to say, there is a 
reference to the Dean's favourite saint, Plotinus. Very 
different in style and diction are the other two articles on 
this subject. Dr. Charles Mercier is merciless in his applica- 
tion of cold logic and common sense to the claims of Sir Oliver, 
Lodge ; . and Dr. Jacks in the presidential address to the 
Society for Psychical Research, delivered last JunC and 
published heie under the title of " The Theory of Survival 
in the Light of its Context," is equally direct and down- 
right. Both deny that science has established any right to 
speak with authority on the great riddle ; both assert it is 
as much to-day as ever a question of Faith. These are two 
first-rate pronouncements which will give unfeigned satis- 
faction to a very great number of persons, who by no 
means see eye to eye with either of the writers. 
JOHN LANE'S NEW BOOKS 
SOLDIER MEN 
liv \VA>. 38. 6d. net. 
"Tlieae vivid aBd liumaii BLo^i^•^ are ainouK tlio best that the war has 
produced. It is a true soldier's booli, manly, Ircsli, and selt-respecting. and 
' it touches tlie spot' every time.""Doiij; felenrapli. 
" Kvery sort and shade of soldJer i.t in this exwllent volume, and every 
one rings perfectly true." — Clarion. 
THE LIFE OF JOHN WILKES 
By HORACE BLE.ICKLEY. With nunnerous illustrations. Demy 8vo. 
16>. net.* 
"An orderly, detjiilwi. aind very carefully-documented account ol Wilkes' 
life .... an admirable hook."— Obserrcr. 
IN THE WAKE OF THE WAR: 
Parliament or Imperial Government? 
By HAEOLO HODGK. Cronn 8vo. 58. net. 
*• Mr. Hodge's suggestions may be read with profit." — Timet, 
IN GREEK SEAS: 
And Other Poems of Travel. 
By OSW.MjD H. HAIU>Y (.late Mr. Itegistrar Hardy of the Trobate Court). 
3s. 6d. net. 
" In tlie*e pieces a mature and cultured mind enlarges in well-moulded 
verse on theroies which appeal to it. . . . His sedat*. ttnely-polished verses." 
""'"" THE MAID WITH WINGS: 
And Other Fantasies Grave to Gay. 
Bv E. n. CSBOHN. 68. net. 
" Literary iraftsmiin.ship is everywhere evident, and It iis a.pplied to a 
great variety of subjects.'"— .Morniiiff Pott. 
THE REBIRTH OF RUSSIA 
By ISAAC I''. MAl!.C(WiS()N'. Illu-trated. 3$. 6cl. net. 
Thifi book i.i Uio ilrst adequate narrative of the greatest event in world 
hiitory since the Fren ch Revolution. ^ t'lMly IS. 
^XCE1L.1L.ENT e/- NOVELS. 
AUTUMN 
By MURIEL niNE (Mrs. Sidney 
Coxon). 
" Undoubtedly 'Autumn' remain* a 
story to rc;ul and remember."— 
Punch. 
•• Full of cliaracter. cleverness, ftnd 
real observation."— 1'« tier. 
THE GAY LIFE 
By KEBLE HOWARD. 
Mr. Keble Iliiward has utilised his 
personal experience of the stage in 
his new novel, '"fhe Gay Life," which 
sets out to give a true picture of 
the life of an actress. 
THE GREAT GIFT 
By SIPXF.Y PATEIIXOSTKR. 
A present-day pol;iticiiI novel which 
'fthouUl be widt^ly read ; -characters 
that may he identifitMl. a fascinating 
love story, and a ylimpse behind the 
eoenes oif the cxpening of th^* War. 
[July IS. 
WITH GOLD AND 
STEEL 
B> CECIL STAi;i:. JOHNS. 
A roraaiK* of the days of Henry of 
Navarre, idctTiresque and full of 
dramatic Interest. 
JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD, VIGO STREET, W.l. 
