The Africa House by Christina Lamb
The Africa House by Christina Lamb
Having previously enjoyed a Christina Lamb book, The Sewing Circles of Herat, I wanted to find more of her titles and so came across ‘The Africa House: The true story of an English Gentleman and his African Dream’. I had pretty much convinced myself that I wouldn’t enjoy this book because of the subject matter it covered (British Colonialism in Africa) but I loved it! I really did love it! The rich descriptions of the African landscape, the ‘first-hand’ account of Northern Rhodesia’s move towards independence and the complex and obsessive human behaviours that ruined lives spanning generations. Christina achieved this by cleverly meshing together her own writing with excerpts from Gore-Brown’s own diary entries and personal letters. This gave the reader a very detailed and very personal account of the life and times of Gore-Brown, including his hopes, his dreams, his fears and his desires.
‘In the declining years of the British Empire, in Northern Rhodesia, Stewart Gore-Browne was a proper English gentleman who built himself a sprawling country estate, complete with liveried servants, rose gardens, and lavish dinners finished off with vintage port in the library. All that was missing was a woman to share it with. He adored the beautiful aviatrix Ethel Locke King, but she was almost twenty years his senior, married, and his aunt. Lorna, the only other woman Gore-Brown cared for, was married as well, but years later her orphaned daughter would become Gore-Browne’s wife. The story of a colonialist who beat his servants yet supported Rhodesian independence and who was given a chief’s burial by the local elders when he died, The Africa House rescues “from oblivion the life story of an astonishing man, an astonishing marriage, and an astonishing house” (The Spectator). ‘
If you are looking for a historical novel/biography then I urge you to look no further. This is definitely a book you should have on your reading list.
I give this book FIVE COFFEE CUPS ☕☕☕☕☕