ABSTRACT
The Sudan campaigns of 1896-98, with their stealthy waiting game against a valiant, savage foe in a savage land, and the drama of avenging Gordon's death, were the subject of considerable popular interest. The advent of the cheap popular press, with the publication of the Daily Mail in 1896 and its emphasis on'stunts', the general increase in newspaper reading and the vogue for adventure fiction coinciding with a massive growth in public library stock, guaranteed war reportage, already popular, a wider readership. I Because of the new power of the press, foreign and colonial policy became increasingly subject to public approval. As Lord Cromer pointed out: 'one of the principal arguments in favour of capturing Khartoum was that the British public had evidently made up its mind that, sooner or later, Khartoum had to be recaptured'.2
