good reads
 

Hello,
Can you recommend a good read set in Kenya or Tanzania that underscores the culture, history, people?

I'd suggest the following:

Bennun, David - Tick bite fever (memoir)
any of Frank Coates novels
Drayson, Nicholas - A Guide to the birds of East Africa (a novel with a similar 'feel' to the No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series)
Fox, James - White Mischief (popular history of the Happy Valley set)
Gallman, Kuki - any of the 3 memoir titles
Grzimek, Bernhard - Serengeti shall not die
Huxley, Elspeth - Flame trees of Thika and other titles of this Kenya settler family
Keating, Barbara - A Durable fire and the 2 sequels
Maathai, Wangari - Unbowed : one woman's (memoir by the Nobel Peace Prize winner)
Osborne, Frances - The Bolter (popular history of the Happy Valley set)
Packer, Craig - Into Africa (memoir)
Poole, Joyce - Coming of age with elephants (memoir)
Ridgeway, Rick - Shadow of Kilimanjaro
Ruark, Robert - any novels
Scholes, Katherine - The Hunter's wife, Lioness + other novels
Sheldrick, Daphne - Orphans of Tsavo
Sheldrick, Daphne - Tsavo Story
Sheldrick, Daphne - African Love Story (soon to be released)
Sisia, Gemma - St Judes
Waugh, Daisy - A Small town in Africa

Enjoy,


Pol

West with the Night by Beryl Markham

Wow! Thanks. Pol, if you could narrow it down to a couple, which would you choose and why?

What Pol said, minus Kuki Gallman. I don't know what everyone sees in those books, or in her. She represents everything a person who moves to Africa should NOT be.

To add a few;

Moss, Cynthia - Elephant Memories
Ross, Mark C. - Dangerous Beauty
Adamson, Joy - Born Free / Living Free / Forever Free
Sapolsky, Robert - A Primates Memoir HIGHLY RECOMMENDED


Ciao,

J.

Forgot:

Leakey, Richard - Wildlife Wars HIGHLY RECCOMENDED TOO

J.

I'd narrow it down to Unbowed for a positive view on recent Kenyan history, the Rick Ridgeway title for some detail on two major contributors to Kenya conservation Bill Woodley and David Sheldrick as well as an interesting travel narrative and then anything by Frank Coates whose fiction has a sound historical basis.

Cheers,


Pol

There's just one book, to my mind.

It's so haunting that it coloured my views of Kenya indefinitely: Kenya Diary 1902–1906, by Richard Meinertzhagen (one of the earliest colonial officers). It's deeply disturbing, but helps make sense of the country, its history and peoples, and the contemporary scene.

Richard

Wow, sounds like something worth looking into, Richard. Thanks