VAGRANT IN SUMMER By Nina Murdoch
Miss Murdoch, an Australian journal- ist, is the author of several bright books about European countries. Vagrant in Summer (Harrap, 8s. 6d.) is the brightest so far, and • should delight readers who hie local colour to be laid on thick, in prose that gushes with abandon, or floats airily on a pretty simile. The author chooses most suitable subjects for her writing, and every chapter is as lovely as a tinted picture poit-card. Even' in such a dreary place as Gibraltar, where her trip starts, the author is irrepressible. When she comes to Salzburg and the South Tyrol she is in her element, and these chapters put the most enticing of publicity brochures to shame. But by the time we reach. Castile, where" grassed and wooded valleys ran softly away, sometimes wearing the silver ribbon of a winding, narrow and dimpled stream," and Portugal, where " happy 'Cornfield tossed bright green ribbons on a light breeze," the most indefatigable redder will be longing for thinks to loOk like what they are instead of like a haber- dasher's stall on a windy day.
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