Customer Reviews

The Lunatic Express: An Entertainment in Imperialism.

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This is a book that I read ten years ago but has remained at the top of my list for Non Fiction. It covers the history of East Africa from the early slave trading of the Arabs at Mombasa and Zanzibar right up to the 1920's.

It's main story is the building of the Mombassa to Kenya railroad, which includes the story of the Man-eating Lions of Tsavo.

The whole book carries one along much as a passenger on the Railroad with a fast pace and more detail than the eye could take in with the feast of information that passes.

Thinking about it makes me want to take the train trip from Mombassa to Kenya, which still runs today.

An interesting overview of the whiteman's effect on Africa. The story is told in an easy style and reads like a novel.

This book is really well written and researched, but oh dear! like the Bible, it is so dense with history (and law) it is hard to find something when you want to go back and check it. The poetic chapter titles do not help either. Flute Out of Tune, a reference to a saying about the slavers of Zanzibar is the title of Part 1 of the book. This deals with the history of East Africa, from pre-history to WW1. This history is to my mind really important, dealing as it does with the British effort to enforce the anti-slavery treaties with the Zanzibari Arabs - something quite overlooked (and so forgotten) in history today. Part 1 is really a book in itself, as is Part 2, The Lunatic Express. Charles coyly says the book is not a 'history' but if it is not that, at around 600 pages of concentrated font it is certainly a starter - the Chapter notes and Bibliography listed at the end of the book look to be the reading list for a Degree, if not a Doctorate in the Pre and Early Colonial History of East Africa.

"The story of how the six-year, 5 million pounds railway line was built over the desert, across the Great Rift Valley and through 100 miles of quagmire, against the odds of disease, tribal raids, marauding animals and mechanical fiasco, is a fascinating tale of courage from a pioneering age now disappeared."

6 page Bibliography, 14 pp of End Notes, and over 25 pp of b&w illustrations.