Review: The Siren Years
| Date | 01 March 1975 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207503000112 |
| Author | Claude Bissell |
| Published date | 01 March 1975 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
THE
SIREN YEARS
A
Canadian
Diplomat
Abroad
1937-1945
Charles
Ritchie
Toronto:
Macmillan,
1974,
216pp,
$11.95
The
Siren
Years
has
been fashioned
from Charles
Ritchie's
wartime
London
diary,
written
when
he
was
second
secretary
at
the Canadian
high
commission.
Ritchie had
a
splendid
vantage
point
for
a
diarist:
he
was
close
to
policy
and
those
who
made
it,
but
he
was
too
junior
to
bear
the
burden
of
decision;
and
he
had
an
entr&e
to
English
society
in
its highest
literary and
social reaches,
and,
moreover,
the
time
and
the
desire
to
enjoy
that
society.
He
confesses
to
being
an
aesthete
with
a
delight
in
luxuries
and
surface
graces;
but
he
pre-
served
a
steady
critical
point
of
view.
These
conditions
were
ideal
for
the
diarist.
Ritchie had
in
addition
a
long
apprenticeship
as a
diarist;
he
had
perfected
the
art
of
the
quick
epigrammatic
assessment
of
peo-
ple
and
events,
and
the
isolation
of
revealing
detail
in
speech
and
appearance. He
challenges
comparison
with the
best
diarists
in
the
language.
Indeed
I
can
think
of
none
who
excels
him
in
grace
of
language
and in
fertility
of
wit.
Charles
Ritchie
doesn't
tell
us
a
great
deal
about
the
processes
and
agonies
of
diplomacy.
Occasionally
he has
'a feeling
of
complicity
in
belonging
to
a
class
or
craft
which
has
its
own
mysteries';
but
he
adds
that
'the
initiates
knew
these
to
be trivial.'
He
is,
however,
greatly
concerned
about
issues,
particularly about
major
changes
in
social
attitude.
He
is
fascinated by
his
High
Commissioner, Vincent
Massey,
by
Massey's
blend
of
'acuteness
and
superficiality,' his
capa-
city
for
ironic
appraisal, and,
at
the
same
time,
his
worship
of
style
and
manners,
his
vigorous
Canadianism, combined
with
an
uncritical
acceptance
of
the
English
way
of
life.
Ritchie
quickly
recognized
a
social
revolution
beneath
the
British
war
effort.
In
the relations
be-
tween
the
United
Kingdom
and
Canada,
and
between
the
French and
the
English
in
Canada,
he
points
out
the resentment engendered
by
'unconsciousness,
lack
of
insight,
the
bland
shrug
of
incomprehension.'
But
The
Siren
Years
is
essentially
a
work
of
literature,
a
sensitive
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