Oscar was the editor of the newspaper.
So he was. From 'Carillon's weekly round-up.
Kensington Chimes
and the changes They Ring
By CARILLON.
A DIFFICULT POST.
Le roi est mort: vive le roi. It has not been easy to fill the vacancy in the Editorial Chair caused by the sad death of the late Mr. F. Gasson. Mr. Gasson's long residence in Kensington, his intimate knowledge of the Borough and his wide circle of friends uniquely fitted him for the post of Editor quite apart from his journalistic flair. His successor is Mr. Oscar Cook, also a Kensington resident.
And further down the column.
THE TWOPENNY LIBRARIES.
As everywhere else we are witnessing the springing up and extension of the twopenny libraries; a movement commercial in its origin, but civic and national in its ultimate effect. As a nation we are not only not book buying, but also not book reading and any trend which helps to remove these stigmas is all to the good, as the wider read a person is the more sympathetic and tolerant he becomes. Undoubtedly the greater reading is done during the weekends and realising this we start with this issue a new, and we hope regular, feature "What shall I read?" The reviews and suggestions under this heading will be by an acknowledged authority in the literary world and will, we hope, prove both catholic and helpful.
Kensington News & West London Times, February 1st, 1935.
'Carillon' was among the first to report
the Phantom Bus of W. Kensington' in June 1934.
*****
From same issue, the first of Mrs Cook's micro-
Paperback Fanatic columns.
WHAT SHALL I READ?
Suggestions for the Library List from CHRISTINE CAMPBELL THOMSON. My own feeling is for books that are written about the kind of people one would like to meet — not the ones who are always being rude and unpleasant and saying witty but rather vulgar things about one another.
Sarah Bertha Onion, the heroine of Miles Noel Streatfield's new book, "Shepherdess of Sheep" (Heinemann) is definitely one of the pleasant sort. Sarah is a most delightful governess, and the nursery where she goes to rule has really attractive and lifelike children. Miss Streatfield's children are always lifelike and generally attractive; these are no exception. But there is more in this than a pleasant story set in a charming country-house with enough love interest to keep one guessing whether or not Sarah will marry her doctor. There is the psychology of Jane, the baby, with her strange little repressions and desires which lead her all unknowingly to such disastrous results. Sarah's mother-instinct is awakened ... how will she reconcile the doctor and Jane ... and do you agree that she was right in what she decided to do? There is a problem here that will interest all women, whether mothers or aunts or governesses.
Governesses seem to be in fashion this autumn. The heroine of "Stormehaven" by Joyce Mayhew (Arthur Barker) is also a governess. But Janet Perry goes to a marvellous old house in California where she finds a strange unhappy family set in luxury. Janet, too, is absorbed into the family difficulties and the matrimonial complications of the Stormes. For her, life ends more happily, perhaps. Miss Mayhew has written a first novel that is rarely beautiful, and she has been wise enough to write about the country she knows. A Californian, she has written a novel with no mention of Hollywood. Stormhaven can be thoroughly recommended as a book to enjoy, with the added pleasure for those who discriminate of being a lovely thing to handle, a trifle larger than the ordinary novel, with wide and restful margins and type that is neither too large nor too small.
Entirely different in outlook but a good book, none the less, is "The Rustling Kid," by Christopher Culley (Eldon Press). This is a new cowboy story dealing with Billy the Kid, and it has the great advantage of being published at three and sixpence at the outset of its career. No one can tell a better cowboy story than Mr. Culley, who was for many years a cowboy himself in Texas. His books have the stamp of the real thing about them, and it is very good to find that he is coming back with new novels. I hear, by the way, that there is a proposal to re-issue his old favourites again in cheap form since the interest in Western stories is so great.
—
Kensington News and West London Times, 2 February 1935
And from later in the month.
WHAT SHALL WE READ?
Suggestions for the Library List from CHRISTINE CAMPBELL THOMSON. "The Devil Rides Out" (Hutchinson) is the new novel which Dennis Wheatley has just brought out. I have not read his earlier ones, but I understand that for those who have, there will be old acquaintances among the people in this new story. This is not a tale for those who like to keep both feet on the earth all the time; but for the large number of men and women who like to get a sensation of fear and a real thrill while sitting quietly at home, here is the story. Rex van Ryn, the American millionaire, the elderly Duke, the last of the Royalists, Marie Lou—once a Russian princess — and her husband, Richard, are the principal characters ranged together against those who would rule the world by evil. This is a book where the adventures take place on other planes, where magic is taken into daily use and considered as natural as eating one's dinner. Even the sceptics, Rex and Richard, are forced by experience of a terrifying kind to believe that there are a lot more things in Heaven and earth than we know about. The story opens in London where Mocata, the evil genius of the book, is trying to get Simon Arons to go wholeheartedly into the net of devil worship. Then it shifts to Maidenhead and Salisbury Plain, while later the chief actors slip over to Paris and then to Middle Europe. The advantage of dealing with millionaires is that there is never any difficulty about transport— the most expensive cars are always waiting in the garage and private aeroplanes may be booked for the asking. Moreover, their flats are luxuriously furnished and Mr. Wheatley has a pretty taste in food and drink. Joking apart, this is a really good thriller for those who want to have their blood curdled and it bears the stamp of much hard work and research while yet it is so easily and attractively written that there is no possible chance of laying it down until the last page is reached. And here is an author who gives good measure for the three half-crowns—this is a real book for the week-end, not for one evening.
Light, amusing, definitely "naughty," is Virginia Faulkner's first novel, "Friends and Romans" (Arthur Barker). Marie Manfred, the pianist of international repute, goes to retreat in Italy. In the villa she continues her love affairs, her epigrams, her reactions to all and sundry— including the goat bought by her former lover, Regan Nicholls, the critic. He it is who sends a bombshell into the slyvan retreat by publishing a novel on the life of Marie Manfred, so little disguised that it is obvious for whom it is intended and yet so labelled fiction that it cannot be actionable. And it is called "Gaudy Calliope "— after the goat. This is definitely not a book for those who wish to keep on the lines of the straight novel. It is an adventure, an experiment, and to be treated as such.
In "The Death Chime" (Harrap), Leonard R. Gribble has given us another straightforward story. Personally, I found this the best of his I had read and I like Simon Peters the "character" detective and his friend the reporter, Laurence Garnett, better than Anthony Slade. But that is a personal preference. In this new story we have all the necessary ingredients for a good mystery and thriller. More than half a dozen murders—if you count the ones committed before the book opens, but belonging to the story— a romance, kept well under control and properly subsidiary to the main object of the book— a criminal whose identity is kept secret till the last page, one excitement after another. A thoroughly good story for an evening's reading.
—
Kensington News and West London Times, 22 February 1935.
