Books: Happily Ever After

PASTORAL — Nevll Shufe — Morrow ($2.50).

Pastoral, which was condensed in Ladies’ Home Journal before book publication, is an example of popular magazine fiction at its most romantic, wholesome and reassuring.

The hero of the story is personable young Peter Marshall, an English bomber pilot who likes to fish. A 33-inch pike which he catches one afternoon helps him strike up an acquaintance with pretty Gervase Robertson, a WAAF assigned to his station. He takes her through the countryside, falls happily in love.

But Gervase cannot make up her mind.

Distracted, Peter loses interest in his work. When she decides not to see him again he also loses his efficiency, wrecks his plane, almost kills himself and his crew. Then Gervase thinks better of her ways. The happy ending comes when Peter proves himself a hero on a mission to Hamburg.

An aeronautical engineer and a lieut. commander in the British Admiralty as well as an experienced writer (Ordeal, Pied Piper), Author Shute makes his conventional story more than just readable, with exciting scenes of air combat, much pastoral warmth and charm.