Archive for the ‘Africa’ Category
by Amanda on May 20th, 2011
Tim Butcher, author of Chasing the Devil, spent a week exploring Lesotho. Butcher says if you took away the warmth of the sun and the 600-foot waterfall, you could just as easily have been on Rannoch Moor in Argyll:
The track left fields that had been regimented by South African farmers and switchbacked its way skywards up the Drakensberg escarpment to the very different, wilder country of Lesotho. Up here there was no big game, no dry savannah nor tropical forest, but the biggest skies you will ever see and a giddying sense of standing on the roof of the continent.
I spent a week exploring this fascinatingly untypical African country, hiking across its vast sprung-mattress tundra of grasslands framed by rocky outcrops and studded only occasionally by the rondavel dwellings of Basotho people. Take away the warmth of the African sun and I could have been on Rannoch Moor in Argyll.
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by Amanda on Feb 11th, 2011
When Tim Butcher became the Daily Telegraph‘s correspondent for South Africa, he decided to go on a journey following the Congo River, just like Henry Stanley did when he was correspondent for the same newspaper in 1876.
In a BBC Radio 4 podcast, a group of readers ask Butcher about the travel book based on his Congo experience, titled Blood River:
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by Amanda on Jan 19th, 2011
The author speaks about the origins of his latest book, set in Liberia and Sierrra Leone, Chasing the Devil:
Butcher, a former war correspondent, is no stranger to epic journeys. His first book, Blood River, was a British bestseller about his attempt to travel down the Congo river.
He spoke about his new book.
Q: What was the motivation behind the current book?
A: Fear and frustration motivate the journey described in Chasing the Devil. I wanted to know more about Sierra Leone and Liberia, countries that rarely feature on the radar of world attention. And I was frustrated that while covering them as a journalist during their civil wars I had never been able to get more than a part picture.
It left me feeling as if I had a stone in my shoe, a niggle I wanted to deal with once and for all.
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by Ben - Editor on Jan 12th, 2011
Michele Magwood’s Magwood & Twigg Book Salon kicks of 2011 with a chat with Chasing the Devil author Tim Butcher.
The book tracks Butcher’s journey across Sierra Leone and Liberia – a 350 mile trek that follows a trail blazed by Graham Greene in 1935 and immortalised in the travel classic Journey Without Maps.
Don’t miss this adventurer-author in conversation with interviewer extraordinaire Michele Magwood. Booking essential!
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by Amanda on Nov 29th, 2010
The Sunday Times books editor wants to know what went into the making of Chasing the Devil:
How did this idea of following Graham Greene’s journey through Sierra Leone and Liberia come about?
I had a troubled relationship with Sierra Leone and Liberia because I went there as a journalist from here (South Africa) covering it from 2001 to 2003, lost a couple of friends there and had a death threat put on me by Charles Taylor in 2003.
There isn’t a tradition of Liberian authors or Sierra Leone authors but weirdly there’s Graham Greene, this great literary figure who goes there when he is 30. He has great success with his first novel, but four books in he’s literally struggling to put food on the table and he has a young child so what does he do? He goes and gets a commission for nonfiction, and that’s helpful because you get guaranteed money upfront.
Back in the 1930s it was quite a cool thing to do. Evelyn Waugh was doing it here in Africa, Peter Fleming was doing it elsewhere, and others were doing it in the Middle East. He goes with a woman, like any man there’s a woman behind you, but in Greene’s case there’s a woman astride, a woman behind, a woman in every corner. He was an amazing bloke; he could barely keep his trousers on. So in 1935 he takes this woman with him, his cousin Barbara, and they both write books so I get two books – Journey without Maps and Land Benighted. They give me the fix point.
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by Amanda on Nov 23rd, 2010
Zebra Press and The Bay Bookshop invite you to the launch of Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa’s Fighting Spirit by Tim Butcher.
For many years Sierra Leone and Liberia have been to dangerous to travel through, bedeviled by a uniquely brutal form of violence from which sprang many of Africa’s cruellest contemporary icons – child soldiers, prisoner mutilation, blood diamonds. With their wars officially over, Tim Butcher sets out on a journey across both countries, trekking for 350 miles through remote rainforest and malarial swamps. Just as he followed H.M. Stanley through the Congo – a journey described as his bestseller Blood River – this time he pursues a trail blazed by Graham Greene in 1935 and immortalised in the travel classic Journey Without Maps in which he and his cousin Barbara were carried. Tim walks every blistering inch to gain an extraordinary ground-level view of a troubled and overlooked region.
As a journalist in Africa, Tim came to know both countries well although the wars made the trips to the jungle hinterland far too risky. This is where he now heads, exploring how rebel groups thrived in the bush for so long and whether the devil of war has truly been chased away.
Hear more of Butcher’s story: see you at the Bay Bookshop!
Event Details
- Date: Tuesday, 30 November 2010
- Time: 5:30 PM for 6:00 PM
- Venue: The Bay Bookshop
27 Somerset Road
cnr. Dixon Street
126 The Square, Level One
Cape Quarter
Green Point
Cape Town
- RSVP: capequarter@baybookshop.co.za, 021 421 1301
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by Amanda on Nov 22nd, 2010
The launch of Tim Butcher’s most recent book, Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa’s Fighting Spirit, was well received at Kalk Bay Books on an evening that was, coincidentally, the bookshop’s fourth anniversary.
Interviewer for the evening Donald Paul described Ann Donald’s shop as “a pool of sanity in our midst that keeps us going”. Hearty cheers rose from the audience, along with a toast courtesy the generously sponsored Leopard’s Leap wines.
Paul said that Butcher’s books (his first, the best-seller Blood River, was an account of his journey in the wake of the explorer HM Stanley) should be compulsory reading – in particular for those who blithely claim “I am an African” and wax lyrical about the “African Renaissance”.
Butcher, who traced the footsteps of Graham Greene in a bid to explore Sierra Leone and Liberia, did not have the entourage of 26 lackeys bearing hammocks, tins of golden syrup and crates of whisky that liberated Greene to gather limes by the wayside for his refreshment. (Greene’s account of his trip was published as Journey Without Maps.)
The author’s ideas on the apparently “humanitarian” move to relocate freed slaves from the UK to Sierra Leone shocked some. He maintained that it was little more than thinly veiled racism. “After the emancipation of the slaves, the locals in Manchester didn’t want black faces in Stockport!” he said.
Chasing the Devil contains a journey of 350 miles – a trek through remote rainforest and malarial swamps – and encounters with the merely devilish, more sinister types up to all kinds of devilry, and, indeed, possibly even the devil himself.
At Kalk Bay Books we had a sooty foretaste and wanted mouthfuls more. Don’t miss this riveting read!
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by Amanda on Nov 12th, 2010
Zebra Press and Exclusive Books Constantia invite you to the launch of Chasing the Devil: The Search for Africa’s Fighting Spirit by Tim Butcher.
For many years Sierra Leone and Liberia have been to dangerouse to travel through, bedevilled by a uniquely brutal form of violence from which sprang many of Africa’s cruellest contemporary icons – child soldiers, prisoner mutilation, blood diamonds. With their wars officially over, Tim Butcher sets out on a journey across both countries, trekking for 350 miles through remote rainforest and malarial swamps. Just as he followed H.M. Stanley through the Congo – a journey described as his bestseller Blood River – this time he pursues a trail blazed by Graham Greene in 1935 and immortalised in the travel classic Journey Without Maps in which he and his cousin Barbara were carried. Tim walks every blistering inch to gain an extraordinary ground-level view of a troubled and overlooked region.
Chasing The Devil is a dramatic travel book touching on one of the most fraught parts of the globe at a unique moment in its history. Weaving history and anthropology with personal narrative – as well as new discoveries about Greene – it is as exciting as it is enlightening.
We look forward to seeing you at the launch!
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by Amanda on Nov 3rd, 2010
Don’t miss your chance to meet author Tim Butcher, and hear about his new book, Chasing the Devil: In Search of Africa’s Fighting Spirit, in Joburg and Cape Town this month.
Butcher, the Daily Telegraph‘s longtime bureau chief for Africa and formerly its chief war correspondent, will be in conversation at the Troyeville Hotel’s wine-dine-and-book club on 9 November. Chasing the Devil recounts the author’s 350 mile slog through the jungles and marshes of Liberia and Sierra Leone. He will be in conversation with multi-award winning writer, Jonny Steinberg – whose next book examines the impact of the Liberian civil war. Dinner costs just R150 plus drinks, and bookings are essential.
Then, on the 19th of November, Butcher will be visiting Kalk Bay Books, where he will be share the details of his journey through the countries bedevilled by blood diamonds, malaria, malcontent and (eep) mutilation:
Event Details – Johannesburg
Event Details – Cape Town
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Photo courtesy TroyevilleHotel and CapeTown.unlike
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by Amanda on Oct 12th, 2010
For many years Sierra Leone and Liberia have been too dangerous to travel through, bedevilled by a uniquely brutal form of violence from which sprang many of Africa’s cruellest contemporary icons – child soldiers, prisoner mutilation, blood diamonds. With their wars officially over, Tim Butcher sets out on a journey across both countries, trekking for 350 miles through remote rainforest and malarial swamps. Just as he followed H M Stanley through the Congo – a journey described in his bestseller Blood River – this time he pursues a trail blazed by Graham Greene in 1935 and immortalised in the travel classic Journey Without Maps. Greene took 26 bearers, a case of scotch, and hammocks in which he and his cousin Barbara were carried. Tim walks every blistering inch to gain an extraordinary ground-level view of a troubled and overlooked region.
As a journalist in Africa, Tim came to know both countries well although the wars made trips to the jungle hinterland far too risky. This is where he now heads, exploring how rebel groups thrived in the bush for so long and whether the devil of war has truly been chased away. He encounters other ‘devils’, masked figures guarding the spiritual secrets of jungle communities. Some are no more threatening than schoolmasters but others are much more sinister, relying on ritual cannibalism as a source of their magical power. Tim encounters these devils on an epic journey that demands courage, doggedness and good fortune.
Chasing the Devil is a dramatic travel book touching on one of the most fraught parts of the globe at a unique moment in its history. Weaving history and anthropology with personal narrative – as well as new discoveries about Greene – it is as exciting as it is enlightening.
About the author
Born in 1967, Tim Butcher was on the staff of the Daily Telegraph from 1990 to 2009 serving as chief war correspondent, Africa bureau chief and Middle East correspondent. His first book, Blood River, was a number one bestseller, a Richard & Judy Book Club selection and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. He is currently based in Cape Town with his family.
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