19 JUNE 1941, Page 20

The Night is Long. By Sarah Gertrude Millin. (Faber iss.)

MRS. MILLIN'S book is described as " the autobiography of a person who can't sleep." The theme of her insomnia is apparently expected to provide the framework of the book. It is introduced at regular intervals, but somehow does not seem to have anything much to do with the rest of her memoirs. These deal for the greater part with life in South Africa and her career as a novelist, with interludes of travel in England, America and elsewhere thrown in. The book is conscientious, detailed and taken in large doses rather boring. Ideally, it should perhaps be judiciously skipped in a train.