Britannica

PRAYER FOR THE LIVING--Bruce Marshall-- Knopf ($2.50).

BROTHERS AND LOVERS--John Hampson--Farrar Rinehart ($2).

In Britain the quality of writing is not strained. Even when they have nothing to say her novelists generally manage to say it well. Author Marshall is best known for his engaging and witty Father Malachy's Miracle, wherein a simple, dumpy little priest, taking literally the pronouncement that faith can move mountains, effects extraordinary miracles to the consternation of Christendom. Author Hampson, emerging from a background of sports and the theatre, is remembered for his lively and dramatic tale about an English pub, Saturday Night at the Greyhound.

In Prayer jor the Living the Rev. J. G. ("Tired Tim") Petrie, Headmaster of St. Kentigern's School, Pitgoorlie Bay, Scotland, is the easygoing, outwardly conventional, inwardly puzzled ruler of a domain. The Rev. Charles ("Wearie Willie") Murray, devout, pious, gentle, with definite leanings toward Rome, is constantly baffled by the problems confronting a pedagog in the English public school. While masters worry over problems of faith and dogma, of pedagogy and discipline, of finances and families, the boys concern themselves with cricket, standing, good form, smut and tormenting "Wearie Willie." Young Middleton falls in love with "Tired Tim's" blithe young daughter and after certain vicissitudes marches bravely off to war. Bill Sikes is expelled for torturing young Carmichael who achieves top place in the form. Bill Sikes has nothing against young Carmichael. He is only annoyed to find his own name in last place. Skinnymalink Jamieson, father of "Slug" Jamieson, makes the commencement speech in an outlandish Scots dialect while the ashamed "Slug" betrays him in the hope of ingratiating himself with his scornful fellows. Out of the intellectual, moral and personal involvements of the masters and the equally complicated problems of the boys, Bruce Marshall has written a fresh, humorous and appealing story to be added to the long list of novels about English public school life.

Author Hampson's people are farther down the social scale. Alf and Ted are devoted brothers. The time comes when Alf, the older, starts running around with girls. Ted is hurt and miserable. Alf becomes engaged to Laura, then is killed in a motorcycle accident. Loyal, devoted Ted marries Laura to give his name to Alf's unborn child. Writing his story in a manner reminiscent of Swinnerton's Nocturne, John Hampson has made much of decidedly slender material.

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