Tom Stacey
The Mad, The Bad and the Ironclad
Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika
By Giles Foden
Michael Joseph 320pp £16.99
WHAT WE SOMETIMES forget about empire is what enormous fun it could be. And obligatory fun, in a higher cause. I mean, could you imagine, in these air-conditioned days of package tours down the Limpopo, a bunch of fellows being required, in the name of the Queen and in the defence of 'All We Hold Dear', to poop off to Africa at its genuinely darkest with two armed ebony boats, each 40 foot long and capable of 19 knots, with orders to sink an enemy ship of 120 foot, maximum speed 7 knots, which was dominating the waters of the longest lake in the world? And, in order to get there, having to transport the said motorboats (in to& secrecy, obviously) 8,000 miles from Tilbury to Cape Town, 2,000 miles from Cape Town to Katanga, south-eastern Congo, 150 miles through virgin jungie and bush and over a 6,000-foot mountain, 100 miles along a scarcely charted stretch of the river Congo's Lualaba tributary, and through a final 180 miles of bush away to the lake shore?
Why, this was just the sort of assignment that might have come the way of our grandfathers in their guardianship of one third of the territory of the globe, its ancillary waters and its inhabitants - the bulk of them benighted natives in ardent need, whether they knew it or
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm