A powerful and intensely human insight into the civil war in Zimbabwe, focusing on a white farmer and his maid who find themselves on opposing sides.

One bright morning Nigel Hough, one of the few remaining white farmers in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, received the news he was dreading - a crowd were at the gate demanding he surrender his home and land. To his horror, his family's much-loved nanny Aqui was at the head of the violent mob that then stole his homestead and imprisoned him in an outhouse

By tracing the intertwined lives of Nigel and Aqui - rich and poor, white and black, master and maid - through intimate and moving interviews, Christina Lamb captures not just the source of a terrible conflict, but also her own conviction that there is still hope for one of Africa's most beautiful countries.

About the Author

Christina Lamb is Chief Foreign Correspondent at The Sunday Times. She has since been awarded Foreign Correspondent of the Year five times as well as Europe's top war reporting prize, the Prix Bayeux and was recently given the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society of Editors. She is the bestselling author of ten books including Farewell Kabul, The Africa House, and The Sewing Circles of Herat and co-wrote the international bestseller I am Malala with Malala Yousafzai and The Girl from Aleppo with Nujeen Mustafa. Her last book Our Bodies, Their Battlefields won the first Pilecki Institute award for war reporting and was shortlisted for Britain's top non-fiction award, the Baillie Gifford Prize, as well as the Orwell Prize and the New York Public Library Bernstein award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an Honorary Fellow of University College Oxford and was made an OBE in 2013.

Reviews

'Lamb is a careful observer, and her anguished refrain is the terrible schizophrenia of people who fiercely love their land but do nothing to save it...the strength is in the storytelling...it is a good piece of reportage...her book deserves to be read.' Daily Telegraph

'A perceptive account of Zimbabwean history since the colonial days.' Times Literary Supplement

'Riveting...Lamb's book tells a disaster story on a massive scale.' Daily Mail

'Compelling...Lamb has a remarkable pair of stories to tell, and does so extremely well.' The Spectator

Book Information
ISBN 9780007219391
Author Christina Lamb
Format Paperback
Page Count 320
Imprint HarperPerennial
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 250g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 23mm