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Daunt Books Children's Short Story Competition 2013

Africa

• North Africa
• West Africa
• East Africa
• Central Africa
• Southern Africa

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  Africa Dances by Geoffrey Gorer

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  In 1934, Geoffrey Gorer accompanied Feral Benga, one of the most famous Parisian ballet dancers, around West Africa. Describing their marvellous journey and using careful anthropological observation, Gorer levels fierce criticism at colonialism and its destruction of traditional culture and forms of expression.

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  Mogreb-El-Acksa by R. B. Cunninghame Graham

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  In 1897, Cunninghame Graham set out to find the forbidden Morrocan city of Tarudant. In spite of his best efforts which included disguising himself as a Turkish doctor and then a sheikh, he was captured and imprisoned for four months in a medieval castle in the Atlas Mountains. What his witty account does achieve, however, is a unique portrait of Berber culture at the turn of the century.

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  Africa: Dispatches from a Fragile Continent by Blaine Harden

  Price: £9.99    Add to Basket

  Similar in style to Kapuscinski's great work The Shadow of the Sun, another foreign correspondent captures the very heart of Africa with his interviews, stories and essays. "Few writers can match Harden's insights into the continent's malaise." Financial Times

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  Morocco That Was by Walter Harris

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  Eccentric journalist Walter Harris lived in Morocco for over 35 years at the end of the 19th century. One of only three Christians ever to have visited the walled city of Sheshouan, he was given unprecedented access to the kingdom of the Sultan in the days before Morocco's subjugation by the French. Anecdotes from the hilarious to the terrifying make this a lively, entertaining historical background which sheds light on the Morocco of today.

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  The Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartley

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  Part history, part memoir, part personal journey of self-discovery, Aidan Hartley has written a haunting and powerful book. A journalist based in Nairobi, Hartley describes his childhood in Africa, four generations of his family history and his often first-hand experience of the brutal carnage of war across the African continent. Much more than a history, Hartley has given to this book a substantial part of himself.

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  Ciao Asmara by Justin Hill

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  A modern history of Eritrea and the people who live in this former Italian colony, told by someone with a genuine passion for the country.

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  King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam Hochschild

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  Adam Hochschild's account of how Edward Morel, a young British shipping-company official, uncovered the horrific reality of Belgium's plundering of the Congo and a slave trade which would claim the lives of between 5 and 8 million people. Written as an historical novel with heroes, villains and victims, this is a gripping and informative account which serves as an excellent introduction to the subject.

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  The White Masai by Corinne Hofmann

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  While on holiday in Kenya, Corinne Hofmann fell in love with a Masai warrior. Moving all obstacles in her way, she moved into his tiny hut with him and his mother and spent the next four years there. This is her fascinating, almost unbelievable, account of the hardships, the joy and the cataclysmic culture clash of her decision.

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  Dinner with Mugabe by Heidi Holland

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  This book of collected interviews is a unique and extraordinary insight into a horrifying man. In 1975, Heidi Holland sat down for dinner with Robert Mugabe, an idealistic freedom fighter; thirty years later she interviewed him again, as an unrecognisable tyrant. Must surely be read by anyone visiting Zimbabwe.

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  A Savage War of Peace by Alistair Horne

  Price: £11.99    Add to Basket

  A comprehensive history of the Algerian War, 1954-1962, which ended in independence but brought down six French governments and resulted in over a million Muslim deaths. Obligatory reading for anyone interested in Algerian history, yet Alistair Horne also argues that this war was a fascinating rehearsal for the modern conflict in the Middle East.

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  The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley

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  Elspeth Huxely and her family were early white settlers who moved to Kenya in 1913. Together they built a house, a coffee plantation and worked alongside the Masai and the Kikuyu in these beautiful but harsh conditions. A wonderful, evocative memoir of a childhood filled with adventure and the of Kenya in a time before the brutal war between the Kikuyu and the British.

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  The Healing Land by Rupert Isaacson

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  A deeply personal account of his travels through southern Africa following the Kalahari Bushmen and a history of these remarkable people.

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  Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure by Tim Jeal

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  In 1856, six men and one woman risked their lives and reputations in the quest to be the first to uncover the source of the White Nile. As they journeyed into the unmarked territory of Central Africa, they suffered flesh-eating ulcers, malaria and the ravages of love and pride. Not all would return. Gripping, scholarly and remarkably lucid.

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  To Timbuktu by Mark Jenkins

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  A travel story by Mark Jenkins which weaves together tales of his earlier travels across America and Europe, with failed attempts by others to reach Timbuktu, and his own journey by canoe along the River Niger to Timbuktu, the most faraway of all faraway places. Adventurous, amusing and perceptive.

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  Another Day of Life by Ryszard Kapuscinski

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  Polish war reporter Ryszard Kapuscinski, brings his acute observation, literary style and hard-hitting reportage to an account of the civil war in Angola which he was sent to cover in 1975.

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  The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski

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  Kapuscinski spent over 40 years travelling around the African continent as a Polish war correspondent. Collected here are his adventures, from dangerous travelling tales to his unique insights into the history and politics of modern Africa. Brilliant, informative and highly enjoyable.

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  Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski

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  The last book from the late great journalist and travel writer Ryszard Kapuscinski. Accompanied around the world by his faithful copy of Herodotus' Histories, Kapuscinski recalls his first adventures in China, India and Africa with his usual wit, sensitivity and knowledge.

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  Season of Blood by Fergal Keane

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  Fergal Keane, an indignant investigative journalist who has made genocide somewhat of his speciality, was in Rwanda in 1994. Particularly moved and angered by what he saw, he was further appalled to watch it leave the headlines and the attention of the West. This is his brutal, captivating, beautifully-written account of what happened, built from eyewitness testimonies and his own experiences.

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  Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Matalon Lagnado

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  A gloriously evocative account of Cairo in the 1950s. Magnado, an investigative journalist for The Wall Street Journal, describes a world of luxury, hedonism and old-fashioned glamour until with the deposition of King Farouk, her Jewish family were forced to flee. Wonderfully observed portraits of her family, a loving description of her home and childhood and a rather tragic exile.

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  Under my Skin by Doris Lessing

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  Winner of the James Tait Black prize, this is the early autobiography of one of South Africa's most respected authors. The first volume describes her childhood in Africa and he arrival in London in 1949. An evocative, honest and beautifully written memoir.

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  African Laughter by Doris Lessing

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  This is Doris Lessing's ode to the country, the landscape and the people of Zimbabwe, based on a series of visits made between 1980s and 1990s. Deeply personal, this is both an insight into Zimbabwe and this astonishing, political, poetic writer.

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  Desert Divers by Sven Lindqvist

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  Sven Lindqvist's sharply written, poetic book is part memoir, part history of colonialism and part travel notebook. It is an ode to the Sahara, a desert which intoxicated so many writers in the first half of the 20th century with its silence, its arid desolation and its promise of adventure. This is an interesting, clever and beautifully written piece of travel writing from this acclaimed Scandinavian author.

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  Oleander, Jacaranda by Penelope Lively

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  This wonderful book is Penelope Lively's description of her childhood in Egypt before and during the second World War. A captivating story of what it is to be young and a lonely girl's journey towards adulthood.

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  The Challenge for Africa by Wangari Maathai

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  The Nobel laureate illuminates the complex nature of the continent, and offers comprehensive routes toward development and peace in the most fractured societies.

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  Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

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  Nelson Mandela's epic autobiography is the celebration of an unbroken human spirit.