MY SOUTH AFRICAN YEAR (1920) By Charles Dawbarn. Author of "Makers of New France," &c., &c. With 30 Illustrations from Photographs. Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net. "MY SOUTH AFRICAN YEAR" represents impressions of the well-known correspondent and writer, Mr. Charles Dawbarn, who toured extensively through the Union, studying for twelve months the politics, social life, and poignant controversies of the sub-continent. The author, whose works on France are in most libraries, is at his best in the book--according to the report of literary gossips: intimate and friendly to the great country he is describing: authoritative and explanatory by virtue of the privilege he enjoyed of coming into contact with South Africa's leading men. He is never happier than when dealing with the problems that beset this growing community, whether they touch Anglo-Dutch relations or the growing self-consciousness of the native. Some of his pungent chapters deal with subjects which, less picturesquely treated, would appear forbidding--here they glow with life. In addition to pictures of Botha, Smuts, Hertzog, Tielman Roos, J. W. Jagger, Sir Thomas Smartt, Mr. Thomas Boydell, and other figures in the political arena, you have, we are told, delightful glimpses of the chief towns. There is tumultuous Johannesburg; quiet and intensely Scotch Durban; Cape Town rustling with political intrigue and captivating in its situation of sea and mountain, and with its wine-farms, suggesting a foretaste of Paradise; Pietermaritzburg sleeping on its illustrious past, still a school centre for growing South Africa; Ladysmith redolent of the siege--and a score of studies of the veld, of the gold mines and mission stations--or the varied appeal of this wonderful land. SOMERSET NEIGHBOURS By Alfred Percivall. Demy 8vo. 8s. 6d. net. A book about Somerset life and character, by a lover of Somerset and a resident of many years. The author knows Somerset well, and has written a most entertaining book, with its flashes of wit and humour, and its undeniable charm.