Books: Wilder than the West?

WILD COLONIAL BOYS (657 pp.)—Frank Clune—Anglobooks ($5).

"I say once more, leave them horses" said the [outlaw], "or I'll blow your b-----brains out, you b -----wretches!"

Bang! Bang! barked the police revolvers.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! from the [outlaws] . . .

Every U.S. boy used to be raised on such firewater, with Injuns thrown in to boot. Any who feel like a fresh snort from the old jug could do worse than sample this Australian distillation. Wild Colonial Boys is written in standard Wild West prose; it begins banging almost from the start, and is still banging after more than 600 pages of close...