I saw this in a second hand bookshop and was so taken by the cover I convinced my friend Jo to buy it. Later I stole it from her. The cover shows five men. Three of them white. One pith helmet apiece. One has a monocle. Another has a revolver and a baton under his arm. The other two men are black. One has a spear. The other has two sticks with human skulls on them. Surprisingly, the book isn’t at all racist.

Only joking. It’s as racist as you could believe. This from page 118:

‘Native folk, at any rate, are but children of a larger growth. In the main, their delinquencies may be classified under the heading of “naughtiness.” They are mischievous and passionate, and they have a weakness for destroying things to discover the secrets of volition.”

What we have here are twelve connected short stories, comic adventures, set in a sanitised fantasy version of colonial Africa. Our hero is Bones, bumbling and British, but terribly brave. The plot of most of the stories involves him setting out on an expedition to save the natives from themselves.

Is it any good? Well, that second star is for the cover. It not quality literature. There are numerous small problems that could have been resolved if Mr Wallace had deigned to do a second draft. He’s obviously planned out what he’s going to write, but the beginnings are often a mess. You can see him gathering his thoughts on paper. The are some funny moments, but it’s bad dad-jokes really. It does have historical interest and I would recommend it if you are:

a) studying colonial history
b) studying early 20th Century British social attitudes
c) a massive racist

Actually, strike c). It’s concerns and attitudes are so far from the mores of modern racists that I think we shall just have to consign it to history. ( )

Read while on holidays in Springfield Castle, County Limerick. This is a series of short stories about Sanders, the English High Commisioner in a part of Africa and one of his assistants Bones, who is well-meaning but dim. I really enjoy these stories, some of which are stupid and racist but several of which are quite a lot of fun. These are of their time and do offer an insight into the lives and times of people then. ( )