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Paperback Africa House Book

ISBN: 0140268340

ISBN13: 9780140268348

Africa House

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Format: Paperback

Condition: Very Good

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Book Overview

Christina Lamb's The Africa House is the bestselling account of an English gentleman and his African dream.

In the last decades of the British Empire, Stewart Gore-Brown build himself a feudal paradise in Northern Rhodesia; a sprawling country estate modelled on the finest homes of England, complete with uniformed servants, daily muster parades and rose gardens. He wanted to share it with the love of his life, the beautiful unconventional Ethel Locke King, one of the first women to drive and fly. She, however, was nearly twenty years his senior, married and his aunt. Lorna, the only other woman he had ever cared for, had married another many years earlier. Then he met Lorna's orphaned daughter, so like her mother that he thought he had seen a ghost. It seemed he had found companionship and maybe love - but the Africa house was his dream and it would be a hard one to share.

From a world of British colonials in Africa, with their arrogance and vision, to the final sad denouement. Leaving the once majestic house abandoned and a forgotten ruin of a bygone age Christina Lamb evokes a story full of passion, adventure and final betrayal.

'The story she tells is in equal measure absorbing, affecting and bizarre' Sunday Telegraph

'An amazing story of high hopes, lost love and ruined lives' Sunday Times

Christina Lamb is an award-winning journalist. Currently roving Foreign Affairs Correspondent for the Sunday Times, she has been a foreign correspondent for almost 20 years, living in Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa first for the Financial Times then the Sunday Times. She is the author of the best-selling book The Africa House as well as House of Stone, Waiting For Allah and Small Wars Permitting: Despatches from Foreign Lands.

Customer Reviews

5 ratings

a must in every Africana collection

Ms Lamb is a pleasure to read. From the very 1st page, I was already in love with Shiwa House and the mysterious Lake of the Royal Crocodiles. Ive never imagined such a magical place could exist!!! Gore Brown's love for Africa, its lands and peoples, is clearly evident, but I found his sometimes patronizing attitude annoying: he despaired that his servants would never appreciate opera like the white man etc. In spite of this, I highly recommend this to everyone ... not just architects and travellers. Some day I must see Shiwa Ngandu for myself!!!

Read it!

If this had been a novel, publishers would reject it as implausible. It astounds me that I had not heard of Stewart Gore-Brown while growing up in Zambia. He comes across as a fascinating, complex person, whose life story boggles the mind.

Absolutely Captivating!!

Wow! What a fascinating story. I have never been to Northern Rhodesia but I felt I was at "Shiwa Ngandu" having tea with the "Chipembele" and watching this place turn into a grand estate. Ms Lamb did an excellent job in her descriptions of events as they develop at Shiwa. I was totally captivated!!Ishmael B Laryea

A book you can't put down.

I started reading this book last night at 8:15pm and couldn't put it down until I finished it at 4:20 this morning. I am bleary-eyed but absolutely happy that I found this gem in a bookstore in South Africa last week. It is an absolutley capitvating book and very well researched. Ms Lamb has a fascinating way of writing...you can almost see the wild animals, smell the scents, enjoy the beauty....in short, this book will mersmerize you. I was born in post-colonial Zambia and lived there for a while, that was the reason I bought the book, but I can assure you even if you haven't been out of your hometown (wherever that may be), you will love this book!!

most enjoyable book

For all who are interested in africa of around 1900-1950 this is a great book. I have read quite a lot of books on the subject and this one is absolutely in my top 5.I recommend it 100%. Well written,the story is a true one and so incredible that one just cannot put it aside.You can contact me if you are looking for more old autobiographies from africa. David
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