RM Ballantyne Blue Lights | R.M. Ballantyne (1825-1894)

To see the transcribed text with images (if possible) use the FB2 version. The full title of this book is "Blue Lights; or, Hot Work in the Soudan, A Tale of Soldier Life in Several of its Phases." And in the Preface we are told by the author that one of the soldiers who had taken part in the Soudan campaign, and who had kept a detailed diary, which he had lent to Ballantyne, had been the principal source of good information for this book. So what we have here is a good account of what it was like to be a soldier in the Soudan campaign, well worth reading. All sorts of information that would otherwise be hard to come by, is in this book. We are told, for instance, about the coffee-sheds instituted by a Miss Sarah Robinson and set up on the jetties from which the transports were departing from the UK. Of course, in the usual Ballantyne style, there is a human story built into this description. First published 1888.