CURRENT LITERATURE.
MY SUDAN YEAR.
My Sudan Year. By E. S. Stevens. With forty illustrations. (Mills and Boon. 10s. (3d. net.)—If you are in search of a dis- cussion of the English position in the Sudan, or of a collection of
statistics, you will be greatly disappointed ; if you are content to take Miss Stevens at her word, and to believe that "the mothers and sisters of Englishmen whose work lies out in the Sudan may find in this book a setting for their thoughts," you will reap your reward. For of facts there are few, of reasoning or history almost nothing ; but there is a great deal of local colour, cleverly manipulated, and a great deal of narrow observation and keen insight, and Miss Stevens has simply written down her impressions as they came to her, whether of scenery or native customs or the ways of Englishmen, and especially of the Sudanese poetry, with its rough, musical rhythm. Only in the last chapter does Miss Stevens touch on the serious problem of the future of the Sudan, and on the question of the importation of foreign labour, and she is careful, even then, to stain the brightness of her book with no touch of pessimism.
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