THE SILENT TRAVELLER IN EDINBURGH

The delighted reception of The Silent Traveller in New York should provide a ready-made audience for another, and further from home, travelogue. Mr. Chiang highlights his reporting with 12 coloured plates, 8 monotone plates and 70 line illustrations which offer impressions in Chinese media of Edinburgh scenes --with great charm. And the Chinese accent is repeated in his text, for there is gentle humor, translations of Chinese poems and stories, a linking of Chinese history, culture and characteristics with that of his new field of investigation. There is rain, there are people, there are historic spots, buildings- and there is color and form in everything his observant eye sees -- and this very wide-eyed innocent abroad ambles happily and pleasantly and speculatively through new scenes. Although the time is 1943, there is little impression of war. Perhaps not of such intimate appeal as the earlier book, this nonetheless has the freshness and individuality of its predecessor.