Long Shanks

TOM TIDDLER'S GROUND--Edward Shanks--Bobbs-Merrill ($2.50). No one will ever accuse Edward Shanks of genius but many a reader will welcome his Tom Tiddler's Ground, a lengthy (552 pp.) but unpretentious novel of pre-to-post-War England, with a lyrical German interlude. Author Shanks's dangerously broad subject gives him plenty of chances to be flashy, cynical or sentimental, but he steers his modest middle course between these pitfalls.

Tom Florey was the son of a publican in a Cornish raining town that had fallen on evil days. A bright lad, Tom dreamed of a brighter future than tending bar, and his schoolmasters wanted him to try for a scholarship at Oxford. When Publican Florey put his foot down on such nonsense Tom moped at home, revolved methods of escape. When the offer of a post as tutor in a German family opened the door, Tom was out like a flash. He got along famously with his employer, a distinguished Nobel Prizewinning author and his queer menage, fell in love with Undine, a visiting cousin from the U. S. When he let himself be seduced by the luscious secretary it cost him both his job and Undine. But the experience had been valuable; back in London he was soon forging ahead, first as secretary to a rising M. P., then as an able underling in a Government office. When the War came a weak heart kept Tom from the front but did not prevent him from rising fast in his job. After the Armistice Tom threw over a promising political career for bigger pickings, married his dead friend's mistress, scurried faster and faster over the Tom Tiddler's ground of post-War London. He and Undine met again, realized too late that they were still in love. At a belated reunion in Berlin all the old friends met for the last time.

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