Australian Passport. ,By Colin Wills. (Dennis Dobson. 10s. 6d.)
THE English are, on the whole, shamefully uninformed about Australia ; they have heard of the " bush," they probably know that Sydney has a beautiful harbour, but they wrongly imagine the Australians to be a race of bronzed extroverts who spend all their time surfing and swimming. Un- doubtedly they are individualists, and their youth gives them certain advantages : fyeedom of outlook and action, and a cul- ture young enough to include the best from their own world and the European. In the 'thirties, when the author was a young man, they were inhibited in their artistic and cul- tural progress by the parochialism of " wowsers " (a pejorative, meaning narrow- minded and puritanical) and the desire to imitate. But they have shed some of their self-consciousness, and now Mr. Wills believes that Australia is forming its own distinctive and valid culture.
The author's writing is that of a journalist in a hurry, with the result that in the last half of this book the reader is given a survey of Australian society, politics and art in the broad generalisation which is inevitable in swift reporting. The descriptions of the bush, sun and scenery, the initiation of the " jackaroo," and the writer's early journal- istic days, are colourful and by far the best part of the book. The concern with analysis rather than individual people is disappoint- itg, and there is a tendency to be categorical. But Mr. Wills is never dull and he corrects some well-known English misconceptions.
B. W.
Previous page
