The famous tend to become slotted into cliche. This has been the fate of Emily Hobhouse, an Englishwoman by turns reviled and revered for her controversial humanitarian role in the concentration camps of the Anglo-Boer War. These spirited, on-the-spot letters selected by herself span not only her well-known work in the camps, but her forceful and imaginative role in the ruined former republics after the war. They rescue the woman from the myth. And what a woman She is seen against an unforgettable backdrop of war-time civilian experience. While the letters are eminently readable in themselves -- one comes to regret that Miss Hobhouse destroyed the only novel she ever wrote -- they ring with persistent historical parallels that will not escape the politically aware contemporary reader. The letters are liberally annotated and the notes and appendices constitute a treasure trove of quotations, anecdote and sidelight: a browser's delight. There is a generous photographic section, highlighting various phases of Emily Hobhouse's life and her South African years.