This classic by Alan Moorehead (https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/01/obituaries/alan-moorehead-73-writer-acclaimed-for-war-reporting.html) is one for your shelf of travel literature. Based on contemporary records, as well as character portraits, this is the exciting story of fifty years of African exploration and the attempt to reach the sources of the Nile.
Across these pages we meet a mixed group of reckless and determined figures – soldiers, sportsmen, scholars and reformers who made journeys to the African interior, enduring great hardship. There is Burton, the romantic, and his associate Speke. Later there is his opponent, the practical and sensible Baker. We follow Livingstone on his last expedition which ended with the famous confrontation and partnership with Stanley. There is George Gordon, the first in the long lineage of military mystics. All these and others were fascinated and challenged by the Nile.
Moorehead provides rich historical and geographical background throughout. This book has retained an entertaining and informative freshness since its first publication in 1960. Check if this well loved work of travel literature is in stock at your local library by consulting the online catalogue at https://www.sllclibrary.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/OPAC/BSEARCH
448 pages in Harper Perennial
Originally published 1960
ISBN 978-0060956394
Alan Moorehead