African Mirage (Batsford, I2S. 6d.) is in all respects a
photo- grapher's book. The text which accompanies the 126 photo- graphs never pretends to be anything but a record of the author's visual experiences, and quite often the reader wishes that the author had left his notebook at home and, let his camera tell the whole story. But though the pictures are better than the text, which is of the pen-picture variety, together they make up a travel-book which is really different from the average run of popular books on Africa. Whether the total impression is a true one is another matter. The best one can say is that it is as true as any completely personal impression can be, and, anyway, this book is meant to be looked at—not used as a guide. The author's route was through Egypt, the Sudan, Kenya, the Congo, Nigeria and the Sahara. His object was to put on record " the plastic and heroic side of an Africa which is slowly disappearing " ; to reveal the " naturalness of form and move- ment " exclusive to primitive peoples. The result is no more a picture of Africa than a photographer's window is a picture of humanity, but it is undoubtedly more pleasing to look at, and some of the pictures are triumphs from a technical and illustrative point of view.
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