30 NOVEMBER 1929, Page 32

Mr. Arnold Hodson, formerly a Consul and now a Governor,

is an indefatigable traveller. Where Lions Reign (Skeffington, 18s.) is an account of his travels during his consulate at Maji in south-western Abyssinia. It is a restless book : the author is never still, but for ever walking, observing, shooting, opening up new routes through a most chaotic country, golfing his way across mountains and deserts, a connoisseur of cheroots and a sartorial tatterdemalion, often faint but always pursuing his tantalizing will-o'-the-wisp, the Border. Brigands and lions and poachers kept Mr. Hodson alert, but wars and rumours of wars did not prevent him discovering new butterflies or compiling a new map, which should have been included in the book to make it more easily under- standable. His orthography is refreshingly original, and such an apothegm as " I hate old men, they are so cunning," tells us more about Mr. Hodson than could a whole biography.

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