  BY THE SAME AUTHOR ALEC WAUGH NINTH EDITION TWENTIETH THOUSAND GRANT RICHARDS, LTD. SOME PRESS OPINIONS Mr. J. C. Squire in Land and Water. “The difficulties of writing good school stories are matters of commonplace observation. The boy cannot see everything, and, as a rule, cannot write. The man forgets much and sentimentalises much. The dilemma will never be completely avoided. But Mr. Alec Waugh’s ‘The Loom of Youth’ is a remarkable attempt.... At his best, he manages his material like an old hand. It is a most astonishing feat.” Capt. C. K. Scott-Moncrieff in The New Witness. “Mr. Waugh has told us a story, the story of Gordon Carruthers’ life at Fernhurst.... I look forward confidently to see him come to grips with the army as thoroughly as he has done with the schools. This year has been big with futures, among which that of Robert Nichols seems incomparably to outshine all the rest. But Mr. Waugh is an author to be diligently followed and enjoyed with delight.” Mr. Gerald Gould in The New Statesman. “For a writer of any age ‘The Loom of Youth’ would be a remarkable achievement; for a boy of seventeen it is more.... And the language is fresh and real, the talk is boys’ talk, such as only some one fresh from it could render.... Difficulties are overcome in two ways—firstly by sheer sound psychology, by making the characters so interesting that it is their minds, not their external activities, that we bother about.... I want, in conclusion, to recommend this book for its courage as well as for its interest. One main problem of school life is the moral one, which most writers shirk, or if they treat it at all, treat sentimentally and timidly and obliquely. Mr. Waugh goes right to the point.” Mr. Ralph Straus in The Bystander. “You feel that all the boys at Fernhurst ... are real people, not the agreeable caricatures, for instance, of ‘The Hill’; and in the Games Master who is so pleasantly nicknamed ‘The Bull’ Mr. Waugh has created a character which epitomises the whole Public School system.... ‘The Loom of Youth’ will take its place amongst the few first-class school stories which have been published this century.” Mr. E. B. Osborn in The Morning Post. “‘The Loom of Youth’ has some of the faults of the modern realistic story of Public School life. But these faults are insignificant in comparison with its unusual merits, chief of which is the sharp actuality of its characterisation.... The boys and masters we meet are of reasonable flesh and blood; of the latter ‘The Bull,’ once an England forward and now games master, is the dominant personality.” Mr. J. A. Fort in The Spectator. “The work, which seems to me one of extraordinary power, seems to me also an honest attempt to ‘tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,’ as the author himself saw it. I think that the writer is, as a matter of fact, a very good witness in regard to certain phases of Public School life, and the publication of his book is, I believe, an event of considerable importance in the educational world.” Mr. Edwin Pugh in The Bookman. “In ‘The Loom of Youth’ we have the truth presented with austere sincerity, with dignity and restraint.... Indeed this first book is in itself a fine achievement, well conceived, well done in every way, and wholly praiseworthy, alike for the excellence of its writing and the worthiness of its purpose.” Mr. H. W. Massingham in The Nation. “I have read few books that have interested me more than Mr. Waugh’s ‘Loom of Youth.’ It is in one respect an almost miraculous production.... It is a most straightforward account; it cannot have been invented, and yet I thought it sufficiently delicate.” Punch. “Prophecy is dangerous; but from a writer who has proved so brilliantly that, for once, jeunesse peut, one seems justified in hoping that enlarged experience will result in work of the highest quality.” The Times. “‘The Loom of Youth’ is a most promising book. Mr. Alec Waugh has something definite to say, the ability to say it, and an apprehension of the subtler causes of action and inaction.” The Daily Telegraph. “An altogether remarkable book.” The Spectator. “We ought to congratulate his old school on having produced a new author of such marked ability.” |
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