Hix Nix Stix Pix: A Kaleidoscope of Talk and Events

David Mattison is a librarian with the B.C. Provincial Archives and
Records Services Library.

This ambitious and well-executed first novel by a British writer ranges between World War One and Two. The central character is an engaging alcoholic moving-picture star with the unlikely name of Philip Inshroin. Cutting his silent film teeth on the gritty realism of trench warfare, Inshroin carries from the war thoughts of love and death that continue to haunt him. As the author writes in an introductory note, the novel is primarily a love story between Inshroin and Lucy Armitage, a plucky ambulance driver who emerges towards the denouement to rescue Inshroin from his own self-destructive forces.

Subtitled “A Kaleidoscope of Talk and Events,” the novel does sound at times like a giant cocktail party where endless names and historic moments are dropped and quickly forgotten. There are many comic and erotic moments; some of the latter seem present merely for effect rather than advancing plot or reflecting character. As a portrayal of Hollywood the book is successful, and we find some marvelous stereotypes roaming these pages: the dictatorial film studio head, the domineering mother who eventually drives her actress daughter to drink and ruin, and Inshroin himself, the star who never takes himself seriously and whose audience appeal remains a mystery throughout.

Like many actors who found themselves out of work through harmless political affiliations, Inshroin sought employment on the stage. He ultimately fails in front of a live audience until he manages to control the very fabric of the production. The end of his life echoes the beginning of the novel: he dies in his own trench of self-despair after having listened to the announcement of the invasion of Poland by Germany. Lucy Armitage, his World War I love, is at his side. His death is not in vain, for it inspires the Chief, the studio head, to draw up a film proposal around the lives of the two, but with a twist — this time the woman will be the hero.