Book Review - The Familiar Presence by A.R. Chisholm

 The Familiar Presence: and Other Reminiscences by A.R. Chisholm

Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966

A delightful little book of essays. A.R. Chisholm was for a long time the head of the Department of French at the University of Melbourne. He was also a soldier in the First AIF, and lifelong friend of the poet Christopher Brennan. In fact he is probably best known today as the editor of the volumes of Brennan's verse and prose that were issued in the early 60s.

The Familiar Presence is a collection of shorter pieces to do with his life and travels. He recounts his experiences as a signaller in World War 1: the familiar presence of the title is death. He describes not only how one gets used to being with death every day, but also some of the techniques of interception of enemy messaging, which was his job for a lot of the war. His descriptions of how the French civilians kept on going in the midst of the madness of war are quite moving. Most of the other essays are to do with people he has met over the years. There is a paean to Augustin Lodewyckx, long-time head of German at the University of Melbourne, whom Chisholm regarded as the greatest scholar in the place ("anything is worth investigating", he would say), a jolly reminiscence of sharing a pint of sherry with Hilaire Belloc, descriptions of the other members of the 'Compliques', Brennan's supper and conversation group, a meeting with Charles Maurras, and even Paul Valery. These are some small fruits from a life lived fully and with wonder.

Books like these get forgotten - they don't even turn up in second-hand shops - but they shouldn't be. This one was a pleasant way to spend an hour or two.

Cheers for now, from

A View Over the Bell