Reviews.

“Promenade,” by G. B. Lancaster—the New Zealand novel we in this country have anticipated for years, has at last been published. When, a year or two ago it was mentioned that G. B. Lancaster was working on a big New Zealand novel, we who knew the capabilities of the writer, had definite hopes that the long awaited New Zealand saga was in course of construction. Now after long arduous labours, for the historical side had to be checked up from many diaries, records and letters, the book has been completed and after having run its serial length in “The Bulletin,” it has been published in book form by Angus & Robertson of Sydney. It is a grand full-blooded book spreading its many coloured pages over the greater part of the twentieth century.

The story opens in January, 1839, in England where the Lovels, an old British family, are discussing their prospective departure for New Zealand. page 55 Present are many of the characters we get to know so well, characters that live in our likes and dislikes in the great story that follows. There is Peregrine (who would carry all the Lovels “manipulate them, dispose of them to his will”) Sir John, his elder brother, a bluff old soldier, Jermyn the younger who is to fall in love with Peregrine's fifteen-year-old wife Sally (“not even Peregrine, for all his efficiency could found a family without a woman”) and her younger sister Darien. The Lovels make the adventurous trip and settle in the first place at Kororareka Beach, one of their neighbours being Nick Flower, an unscrupulous yet likeable trader who is to play such an important part in the book. And so the story develops, the promenade being the virtuous one of Sally with her impossible Peregrine against the background of the massed promenade of New Zealand history—the promenade of young colonials, soldiers, statesmen, sailors, farmers and, of course, Maoris. The sweep of the pencil of the writer grows broader and bolder as the novel proceeds, the human story never being lost as it is wonderfully interwoven with the colourful historical background and the composition endures always. The Maori wars, the succession of competent and incompetent governors (“they fell like leaves”) the gross mismanagement of Colonial affairs from England and from our own Parliaments, the fight for land and for home, the romance, the tragedy and humour of it all is presented with the pencil of an artist.

That this book has been written by one, who, though not born in New Zealand received her training and inspiration here as a writer, is a fact that must be recorded with satisfaction.

“Promenade” was published recently in America where it received glowing tributes from the critics. The first edition in Australia was sold almost before it reached the bookshops. In this country of course the book should set up a new sales record. Best of all it must live for all time as one of the outstanding books written about New Zealand. The novel has its minor faults; historical accuracy, or shall we say sympathy, may at times be questioned; the higher strata of earlier colonial life is emphasised rather than the working pioneer section. Even so it will take a writer of great power and art to improve on G. B. Lancaster's Promenade.”

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Railway engines have always exercised their full pull on the interest of man—from boyhood to old age. The popular appeal of the locomotive springs from something stronger than the fact that it is always a “free show”; there is romance, power and vitality in a railway engine. Two locomotive booklets recently issued by the Locomotive Publishing Co., will therefore attract interest. “Modern Locomotives of the L.M.S.,” by D. S. Barrie, covers the development of many types of locomotives, including the stream-lined Coronation engine. The second book “L.N.E.R. Locomotives, 1938,” deals with the modern speed monsters of the L.N.E.R. Both booklets are nicely printed and illustrated, and sell at a modest one shilling apiece.