Into Africa

Into Africa: A Journey Through the Ancient Empires, also co-authored by Sheila Hirtle, was published by Key Porter Books in Canada and Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the UK in 1997. Well, every author no doubt has his or her favorite book, and this is ours, with something genuinely new to say about Africa life and history. It combined meticulous research, mostly by Hirtle, with on the ground travel. (When asked about the collaboration, I always say, truthfully, that “Sheila told me where to go, and I went.”)

The press seemed to agree. The Globe and Mail’s notice was typical: “A deft and fluid intermingling of travelogues with cultural and political history. Rarely is so ambitious a book so resoundingly successful.” The Financial Times, in London, put it this way: “The book is ambitious and successful and deserves to be read.” The Library Journal said it was a “superb distillation of sociocultural and recent political events [that] proves to be both entertaining and informative … Highly recommended.”