Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika [Hardcover]

Giles Foden (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 2005

The Whitbread Award—winning author of The Last King of Scotland brings his extensive knowledge of Africa to his first work of nonfiction: the incredible true story that inspired the classic film The African Queen.

When the First World War breaks out, the British navy is committed to engaging the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship–even if the body of water in question is a remote African lake and the enemy an intimidating fleet of German steamers. The leader of this improbable mission is Geoffrey Spicer-Simson, the oldest lieutenant commander in the navy, whose career thus far had been distinguished by two sinkings. His seemingly impossible charge: to trek overland through the African bush hauling Mimi and Toutou–two forty-foot mahogany gunboats–and defeat the Germans on Lake Tanganyika. Spicer-Simson sets forth on a lunatic 2,800-mile journey with a band of cantankerous, insubordinate Scotsmen, Irishmen and Englishmen. After going into battle wearing a skirt and becoming the god of an African tribe by showing them his tattoos, he is acclaimed a hero. But the truth about the battle is somewhat more complex.

With its powerfully evoked landscape, cast of hilariously colorful characters and remarkable story of hubris, ingenuity and perseverance, Mimi and Toutou’s Big Adventure is history at its most entertaining and absorbing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

At the height of WWI, as armies of thousands fought with each other on European soil, a much more unusual battle was waged in eastern Africa, where Belgian and German colonial territories were separated by the second largest body of water on the continent, Lake Tanganyika. An English big-game hunter living in the region came up with a plan to take out the German warships that patrolled the lake, and command of the mission was given to Geoffrey Spicer-Samson, a career officer whose boorish incompetence had earned him the dubious distinction of being the oldest lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy. Foden (The Last King of Scotland) delivers his novelistic skills with full effect in depicting the absurdity of Spicer and his campaign, from the self-designed skirts he wore to combat the heat to his status as "Navyman God" among the local natives when his small motorboats—named with the French words for "miaow" and "bow-wow"—actually managed to capture and sink much larger enemy ships. Charming illustrations at the head of each chapter, along with the hand-drawn maps, further add to this tale's quirky appeal. Closing chapters add a poignant epilogue, explaining how Spicer's story inspired C.S. Forester's The African Queen, and noting the disappearance of the events from the memory of modern Tanzanians. Foden's engrossing account is not just for military historians or lovers of exotic locales; it should please anyone who loves a good story. (Apr. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Generations of film lovers have reveled in the adventures of Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen. Now acclaimed writer Foden reaches back into history, retracing the incredible World War I odyssey that inspired both C. S. Forester's novel and the subsequent film classic. Commissioned by an overburdened admiralty to wrest control of strategically significant Lake Tanganyika from the Germans, delightfully eccentric naval officer Geoffrey Spicer-Simson and his ragtag crew of disgruntled Scots, Irish, and Brits undertook an arduous 2,800-mile journey through the untamed African bush and up the unpredictable Congo with two 40-foot gunboats improbably named the Mimi and the Toutou. Foden's painstaking attention to historical and descriptive detail vivifies an amazing true story featuring a hilariously less-than-perfect hero. Swashbuckling action, comical ineptitude, and hair-raising adventure all rolled into one highly entertaining package. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1St Edition edition (April 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400041570
• ISBN-13: 978-1400041572
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,711,387 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strange happenings in Africa, April 24, 2005

By 

Edwin B. Burgess "KS librarian" (Leavenworth, KS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika (Hardcover)

At the outbreak of WWI, one strategy of the allies was to isolate and control German East Africa. Germany had had the foresight to place some armed boats on Lake Tanganyika, which effectively controlled all transportation in East Africa. The very peculiar British naval officer Geoffrey Spicer-Simpson was directed to take Mimi and Toutou, two forty-foot gunboats, overland from South Africa to the lake and defeat a fleet of German steamers. Spicer-Simpson went into battle wearing a skirt, was worshipped as a god by the Holo Holo tribe, entirely alienated his subordinates, and more or less succeeded in reducing the German naval presence through a combination of effective military action and slapstick. The events that transpired were eventually transmogrified into The African Queen (first the book by C.S. Forester, then the movie), though being significantly changed in the process. Highly entertaining analysis of a mostly forgotten episode in the Great War. Foden's mix of colorful characters, hubris, pluck, and idiocy is well worth reading.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bungling Off to War, March 9, 2006

By 

doomsdayer520 (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika (Hardcover)

For history buffs, this is a potentially enjoyable yarn about a forgotten little episode from the past, but in a poorly constructed book. Giles Foden covers the odd story of a World War I naval campaign on Lake Tanganyika in East Africa, as old colonial intrigues between the Germans and English spilled over into the Great War, and Africa became a very remote battleground between the imperial powers. Mimi and Toutou were two specially-made motorboats – which were built in England to be small and fast, as secret weapons against the large German warships that patrolled the lake. Under the command of the eccentric and delusional Geoffrey Spicer-Simson, a motley crew of conscripts hauled the two boats by rail and river, and on foot, all the way from South Africa in a quest that lasted several months. They finally engaged the Germans in a naval lake battle that had very little strategic significance, especially considering the logistical nightmare of setting up the scene.

This is the type of odd historical episode that can make for fun reading, and Foden does a fairly good job describing the bizarre bungling aspects of the campaign, as well as the weird eccentricities of Spicer-Simson and his crew. But Foden has merely constructed his narrative from broad chunks of information borrowed directly from earlier historians and biographers, especially one named Peter Shankland. And like everyone else who discusses this period in colonial Africa, Foden can't stop talking about Joseph Conrad. Alas, the story of the Lake Tanganyika campaign, while intriguing, just isn't momentous enough to be the subject of a substantial history, or even a medium-sized book like this. In that regard, Foden had to flesh things out with a completely inconsequential attempt to analyze the novel and film "The African Queen," which were partially inspired by this historical episode; followed by an awkwardly melancholy account of a present-day trip to the region. Through unsatisfactory writing and construction, this book gives an unsuccessful treatment to a historical episode that was quirky but not really very dramatic. [~doomsdayer520~]

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Done much better by others, May 26, 2007

By 

Grey Wolffe "Zeb Kantrowitz" (North Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika (Paperback)

Giles Foden's story of the World War I battle on Lake Tanganyika is mostly based on work by other authors. Most quoted is Peter Shankland (published in 1968) who interviewed many of the principles late in life, and Byron Farwell. In fact lengthy parts of both books are quoted to establish many of Foden's points. The problem is that he has very little new to say and therefore spends most of the first two hundred pages filling out the short and more to the point chapter that is in Farwell's book. He has little or no information from the German side.

The last forty pages are involved with discussing the background to the old Humphrey Bogart/Katherine Hepburn movie, "The African Queen" and how the story of the battle and a book by C.S. Forester, follow parts of the 'real' occurences. This and ten pages on his own trip back to the area, seem to be there to fill out the book, more than to inform.

Lastly, there are two "glaring" mistakes in the book from my point of view. When discussing the travel of the Naval African Expedition through the then Union of South Africa, he has them travel through Mafeking and then Johannesburg (J-Burg) on their way to Lake Tanganyika. Look on any map and you will see that J-Burg is south of Mafeking. Speaking of maps, on the one in the book of southern Africa, he has J-Burg placed where Mafeking is (on the South Africa, Botswana border); J-Burg is in the center of South Africa.