LEIGH FORBES: Books of all Sorts

30th April 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Translator: a tribesman’s memoir of Darfur

The Translator: a tribesman’s memoir of Darfur

by Daoud Hari. A chilling first-hand account of the Darfur genocide wreaked by the Sudanese government in 2003. But coincidence, Sudan’s President, Omar al-Bashir, was finally ousted as I was reading this book in 2019, news which did much to … Continue reading

13th August 2017
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Caliban’s Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors

Caliban’s Shore: The Wreck of the Grosvenor and the Strange Fate of Her Survivors

by Stephen Taylor. The Caliban Shore accompanies the survivors of the East India Company’s schooner, “Grosvenor”, after she was wrecked on the south-east African coast in August 1782. The story starts in India as passengers and crew make preparations to … Continue reading

3rd June 2017
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu

The Badass Librarians of Timbuktu

by Joshua Hammer. The Bad Ass Librarians of Timbuktu tells two stories: one about thousands of ancient manuscripts – on such subjects as history, science, Islamic law, conflict resolution, and poetry – and the librarians who sought to first preserve, then … Continue reading

17th July 2016
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Walking the Nile

Walking the Nile

by Levison Wood. We all know the longest river in the world is the Nile (or is it the Amazon?), but we don’t actually know how long that is. From it’s (disputed) source in Rwanda, to Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, the … Continue reading

12th April 2016
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Land of Second Chances: the Impossible Rise of Rwanda’s Cycling Team

Land of Second Chances: the Impossible Rise of Rwanda’s Cycling Team

by Tim Lewis. Land of Second Chances weaves a wonderful path between cycling and Rwanda, managing to concentrate on both and show how intertwined they are. Although there is inevitably some detail about the genocide, there is much more about … Continue reading