AS ROBERT O COLLINS admits in the bibliographical essay that concludes this excellent book, there is no shortage of literature about the Nile. From works about the search for its source to those about the discovery of the origins of man on its banks, and from Herodotus to Agatha Christie, the Nile’s waters have flooded writers’ imaginations and scientists’ curiosity.

Perhaps it is no surprise that the world’s longest river should inspire so much typescript. For over four thousand rmles, the Nile weaves its way through nine countries and passes through almost every conceivable landscape – through glacier-topped mountains to the lush forests of the equatorial region, and on into