Nora Lester. By Anna Howarth. (Smith, Elder, and Co. 6s.)
—Miss Howarth is at her best when describing thrilling adventures "by flood and field," and as we do not get to the Boer War till about the two hundred and thirtieth page of the present book, it may be supposed that it is not quite so good as usual. The story, too, leaves the hero still at the front, so the end does not tell us as decisively as one likes in a novel of this kind that "they married and lived happily ever after." How- ever, as more than half the action passes in South Africa, the book is interesting at the present time, even, to make a " bull," before the interesting part begins. The description of life on " Botha's " farm deals with a subject on which we all want to know as much as possible, and the accounts of the horrors of the " refugee trains " will serve to remind English people of the sufferings of these loyal fellow-subjects, of which that night- mare journey was only the beginning. Why the author should have "made so free" as to bestow the names of prominent Boers on many of her Dutch characters we know not. It would surely not have been difficult to choose rather less well-known surnames for her Boer dramatis personae.
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