Book Review Michael Moran, The Pocket Paderewski, Australian Scholarly, Melbourne, 2016, $44.00 hc.

     This beautifully produced 384-page biography of Australian-born pianist Edward Cahill (1885-1975) has been written by his nephew and will be of primary interest to lovers of the Western classical music canon and its piano repertoire in particular.
     However, it will be of great usefulness also to lovers of our British tradition and culture, for it contains fascinating details about topics germane to our struggle to protect our heritage. These include (1) cultural life in and around Queensland in the period 1890 to 1920 (Cahill was born in Beenleigh, near Brisbane); (2) the cultural life of the British Raj in the 1920’s and 1930’s (Cahill toured there); (3) the life of the British aristocracy during the first half of the 20th century and its dreadful decline (Cahill pursued a brilliant career playing before royalty and the upper class); (4) the rise of the Nazis (Cahill was in Germany in 1934-35); (5) the apartheid regime in South Africa (Cahill lived there from 1948 to 1962); and (6) the lifestyles of British residents in the Riviera (where Cahill also lived for extended periods of time).
     The Pocket Paderewski is filled with information about these and associated matters. It contains a most useful bibliography that includes many studies of aspects of British history now largely forgotten.
     A photograph of the author, who lives in Warsaw and has published studies of Poland and of the old empires of the South-West Pacific, shows him looking like some sanguine adventurer in a Joseph Conrad novel. His authorial style is often witty and humorous; his mode of intellectual gossip casts much light on human nature and the human condition; and he writes about controversial matters sensibly, moderately and without deferring to ‘political correctness.’ Thus his text is continually entertaining and surprising, as well as being comprehensively informative.
-    Nigel Jackson