Bill Bryson’s African Diary
Travel – 60 pages / 2002 / bought mine for £1.99 in Oxfam Book Shop, St Austell, Cornwall, June 2009
- 2 nods out of 5 -
A snippet for Bryson fans in-between his larger travelogues and what would be his mammoth A Short History of Nearly Everything, African Diary just about keeps the hunger for more Bryson trivia at bay…but only just.
Written principally as a charity project for CARE international, Bryson visits Kenya, commenting on its general poor state and the vast amount of aid needed. His visit takes in a destitute – and illegal – shanty town; a market in which women can club together to get out a loan for their crafts business; small villages off the beaten track – and all whilst conversing with local aid workers. Doesn’t sound like a great deal, however, accompanying is Bryson’s humour. Most interesting is the Gedi ruins, a town that remained undiscovered until the 1920s, where archaeologists ‘found beads from Venice, coins from China, an iron lamp from India, and scissors from Spain’ – yet the Gedi people are found nowhere on written, historical record! Sums up this mysterious and vast continent.
The largest problem of the book is its puny size: Bryson fans will be left wanting more. A book to devour over the space of a cup of tea (or two), Bryson still manages to open the reader’s eyes to another world, all done in his usual, easy-going manner. If Bryson should return to the life of air plane adventurer and train buccaneer, then another venture upon the “Dark Continent” would be strongly recommended.
Travel – 60 pages / 2002 / bought mine for £1.99 in Oxfam Book Shop, St Austell, Cornwall, June 2009
- 2 nods out of 5 -
A snippet for Bryson fans in-between his larger travelogues and what would be his mammoth A Short History of Nearly Everything, African Diary just about keeps the hunger for more Bryson trivia at bay…but only just.
Written principally as a charity project for CARE international, Bryson visits Kenya, commenting on its general poor state and the vast amount of aid needed. His visit takes in a destitute – and illegal – shanty town; a market in which women can club together to get out a loan for their crafts business; small villages off the beaten track – and all whilst conversing with local aid workers. Doesn’t sound like a great deal, however, accompanying is Bryson’s humour. Most interesting is the Gedi ruins, a town that remained undiscovered until the 1920s, where archaeologists ‘found beads from Venice, coins from China, an iron lamp from India, and scissors from Spain’ – yet the Gedi people are found nowhere on written, historical record! Sums up this mysterious and vast continent.
The largest problem of the book is its puny size: Bryson fans will be left wanting more. A book to devour over the space of a cup of tea (or two), Bryson still manages to open the reader’s eyes to another world, all done in his usual, easy-going manner. If Bryson should return to the life of air plane adventurer and train buccaneer, then another venture upon the “Dark Continent” would be strongly recommended.
