African Lives: White Lies, Tropical Truth, Darkest Gossip, and Rumblings of Rumor from Chinese Gordon to Beryl Markham, and Beyond [Paperback]

Denis Boyles (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Supplementing his experiences in Africa with tales from other books and adding gossip, freelance writer Boyles here wisecracks his way through the Dark Continent, singling out exploits of adventurers he has met or heard about. Among them: Patrick David Shaw, a 300-pound Nairobi school administrator who freelances as a terrifying white cop in a black neighborhood; Emin Pasha (originally Silesian-born Eduard Schnitzer), who created and ran Equatoria, in the southern Sudan, until he was ousted by the Rambo of explorers, H. M. Stanley; Staffan Domingo de-Mistura, a "movie-perfect, hemi-Italian aristo-activist," whose brainchild, Operation Rainbow, was one of the most troubled and troublesome emergency food-and-medicine airlifts in recent memory. Boyles goes along on relief flights with the cargo cowboys who fly beat-up planes, most notably "George Pappas," who amassed $2 million in two years"not bad for a guy who had landed in Africa on the run from a batch of law enforcement and tax agencies and an angry wife." Some of these stories appeared originally in Alan Moorehead's works and in books by or about Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, but they are fun to read again in Boyles' livelier versions.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Hunter Thompson meets Cecil Rhodes in this amusing if idiosyncratic account of modern Africa. From its opening lines"There are a lot of places where the bloody head of mankind pokes through the windshield of creation"to its conclusion 15 chapters and thousands of miles later, it startles and delights. Boyles worked in sub-Saharan Africa for more than a decade and gives here a lively personal description of post-colonial life, especially among the whites. His reporting is crisp, funny, and cynical; the historical chapters are generally shoddy. Still, it's a wild ride through one person's Africa, suitable for travel collections and public libraries. Michael Edmonds, State Historical Soc. of Wisconsin Lib., Madison
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 225 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; Ballantine Books ed edition (August 26, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345356667
• ISBN-13: 978-0345356666
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #208,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #60 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Chinese

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What a suprising little book!, September 13, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: African Lives: White Lies, Tropical Truth, Darkest Gossip, and Rumblings of Rumor from Chinese Gordon to Beryl Markham, and Beyond (Paperback)

I went into this book with the intention of ripping it to pieces. I came away disagreeing with the message and impressed at how well Mr. Boyles writes.

Any professional writer should read this book, if for no other reason than to explore some of the better subtleties of the trade. This book is well written, clear, it moves admirably well considering the subject matter which I previously would have thought to be prose-proof. It shows how enjoyable even subjects that one would previously have had no interest in can come alive for a reader with the right author.

Buy this book.