This is a fabulous read for anyone interested in history. It relates the story of the trade routes around the Indian ocean and how the Chinese as early as 1000 AD were exporting giraffes from Malindi back home. It takes us right through to how the slave trade functioned and how it was stopped and the history of the migration of the Indonesians to Madagascar. A superb read.

A collection of short but true stories of the early European settlers to Kenya. Mostly taken from diary entries and personal letters. Some of the hardships endured by some of the writers makes one wonder how they ever got through to the central regions. Compiled by the renowned authoress Elspeth Huxley

The true story of the building of the Mombassa to Uganda Railway. At the time the European powers were scrambling for territory in Africa and they thought that to control the source of the Nile was to control the Suez Canal and hence the trade route to India. The Germans had Tanganyika and the British had Kenya. An extraordinary story.

Another real life story of the flamboyant  Ewart Grogan, a man who promised to walk from Cape Town to Cairo in 1899 in return for the hand of the woman he loved. He completed the walk, married  Gertrude and reserved his deserved place in African history

At the outbreak of the first world war the Germans in Tanganyika found themselves enemies with their British neighbours in Kenya through no fault of their own. This book is full of historical characters. Namely Baron Von Letow who was the only man in British history allowed to retain a sidearm after surrender. Great story!

This is a real history buff's book. The complete history of the exploration and colonization of the entire continent. This book I loved but it took me a few years to finish.

This book was the main inspiration for my main business, funzifurniture.com
It is packed with photos and details of most of the continents artistic treasures. If you are into design or art do not miss this. It was originally published and given to people who bought tickets to an exhibition on the subject in London's Royal Academy of the Arts January 1995

Not much to say about this famous worldwide publication.
A complete breakdown of how to do it for the independent traveller. Restaurants, lodging, cheap hotels and transport and a lot more. A must companion for the budget traveller.

I must admit I have not read this but as I type this I will start tomorrow. It is one of the famous books written about the colonial period of Kenya.

This I have read and is one of my treasured books. During the building of the Lunatic Express, two oversized lions took an un-natural interest in the taste of human flesh, 130 individuals perished, thus delaying of the building of one of the world's greatest railways. It took almost a year to hunt the lions down before construction could continue.. Filmed as "Ghost and the Darkness" with Val Kilmer and Michael Douglas. Magic true story. Very light reading.

In 1913, at the age of six, Elspeth Huxley accompanied her parents from England to their recently acquired land in Kenya, "a bit of El Dorado my father had been fortunate enough to buy in the bar of the Norfolk hotel from a man wearing an Old Etonian tie." The land is not nearly what its seller claimed, but Elspeth's parents are undaunted and begin their coffee plantation.

I've long been fascinated by Isak Dinesen's life and with this book she lovingly describes the very heart of it, her sixteen years running a coffee plantation in the African highlands. She tells the reader almost nothing personal; but her descriptions of this vanished place and time are nothing short of magic. By "erasing" herself from the landscape, you are really and truly experiencing her life there.

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