30th April 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on 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
15th April 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on The Riddle and the Knight: In search of Sir John Mandeville
by Giles Milton. I loved this book! I’ve previously read the author’s Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, so had a pretty good idea of what to expect from his writing, and he didn’t disappoint. The story of Sir John Mandeville’s book The Travels, … Continue reading
26th February 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Henry Winstanley and the Eddystone Lighthouse
by Adam Hart Davis and Emily Troscianko This book is about Henry Winstanley the man whose life (and death) became intractably linked with the first Eddystone Lighthouse. The Eddystone rocks – an outcrop of slippery, sloping gneiss that barely pokes … Continue reading
24th February 2019
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Last Train to Zona Verde
by Paul Theroux. Paul Theroux returns to Africa after ten years away, and travels overland from Cape Town to Angola for what he expects to be his final visit. The book begins on a bush-hike with the traditionally dressed Ju/’hoansi … Continue reading
5th October 2018
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Histories of Nations: How Their Identities Were Forged
by Peter Furtado. A “History of the Political Revisionist Histories of Nations” would be a more accurate title for this book, which comprises a selection of essays, written by natives of each country, on some (necessarily limited) aspect of their … Continue reading
23rd September 2018
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Shadow of the Silk Road
by Colin Thubron. Colin Thubron travels along the ancient silk road, from the east of China to Turkey, via Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, northern Iran, and Turkey. He visits ancient monuments, often eliciting the help of locals to reach all-but lost … Continue reading
18th September 2018
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: How One Man’s Courage Changed the Course of History
by Giles Milton. Nathaniel’s Nutmeg is essentially a history of the East India Company’s early years – including the lengthy prelude to its inception – and its part in the spice race. The first half of the seventeenth century saw the … Continue reading
13th February 2018
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Blind Descent
by James M. Tubor. James M. Tubor chronicles the search for the world’s deepest cave, as lead by two teams – one American (in Mexico), one Ukrainian (in Georgia) – between 1991 to 2009. He describes the characters involved, and the … Continue reading
3rd June 2017
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on 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
15th January 2017
by Leigh Forbes
Comments Off on Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded
by Simon Winchester. The events surrounding the cataclysmic 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, a island in the Sunda Strait, make for fascinating reading. It might seem impossible to convey the immensity of the forces required to blow a 2,600’ mountain to … Continue reading
