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The Lunatic Express

Hardback

Main Details

Title The Lunatic Express
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Charles Miller
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:608
Dimensions(mm): Height 234,Width 153
Category/GenreAfrican history
Colonialism and imperialism
Trains and railways
ISBN/Barcode 9781784977382
ClassificationsDewey:967.6
Audience
General

Publishing Details

Publisher Head of Zeus
Imprint Head of Zeus
Publication Date 11 August 2016
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

The magnificent saga of how the white man changed Africa: the pioneers, visionaries and politicians - and their crazy railway. In 1895, George Whitehouse arrived at the east African post of Mombasa to perform an engineering miracle: the building of the Mombasa-Nairobi-Lake Victoria Railway - a 600-mile route that was largely unmapped and barely explored. Behind Mombasa lay a scorched, waterless desert. Beyond, a horizonless scrub country climbed toward a jagged volcanic region bisected by the Great Rift Valley. A hundred miles of sponge-like quagmire marked the railway's last lap. The entire right of way bristled with hostile tribes, teemed with lions and breathed malaria. What was the purpose of this 'giant folly' and whom would it benefit? Was it to exploit the rumoured wealth of little-known central African kingdoms? Was it to destroy the slave trade? To encourage commerce and settlement? THE LUNATIC EXPRESS explores the building of this great railway in an earlier Africa of slave and ivory empires, of tribal monarchs and the vast lands that they ruled. Above all, it is the story of the white intruders whose combination of avarice, honour and tenacious courage made them a breed apart.

Author Biography

Charles Miller was a popular author and journalist, specialising in historical books on East Africa. His titles include AN ENTERTAINMENT IN IMPERIALISM, BATTLE FOR THE BUNDU and THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN EAST AFRICA.