The editors of this selected but unexpurgated presentation of Sir
Charles Rey's diaries make the modest claim that they constitute an
invaluable record of the actions and thoughts of a colonial
administrator. So they do, but of a most extraordinary colonial
administrator. On a first reading Rey's eccentricity and
individuality bursts out in the exuberant excesses of his prose
style. That body of pestilent dogs, the London Missionary Society,
is a characteristic, and relatively restrained, example. The
publisher's blurb makes a fully justified boast of Rey's dashing
colloquial style, his engaging humour and frankness, his
entertaining vividness. Rey was undoubtedly a character and his
diaries make a jolly good read ... Yet as one looks through the
book again it becomes clear that Rey's true peculiarity lay not in
any quirks of humour but in his intense seriousness. -
*JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORY*
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