| Full Product Review | ||||||||
by Edward Paice
• Hardback - 470 pages Need to do something to impress the wealthy stepfather of your would-be bride? Being elected the younger-ever member (22) of the Alpine [mountaineering] Club and suvived the Matabele War not enough? How about spending three years on a quest to be the first man to traverse the African continent from south to north? Fortunately for Grogan, his beloved Gertrude waited for him. Given his later infidelities -- he ended up running three separate families -- one has to wonder if she regretted doing so. After his epic trip, Grogan returned to London in 1900 a celebrity. But Africa was in his blood and he soon returned, first serving in Lord Milner's 'Kindergarten', a elite group of young imperialists charged with reconstructing South Africa after the Boer War, then settling in British East Africa. A passionately determined man, he became a founding father of colonial Kenya. He established the country's timber industry, constructed Mombasa's first deep-water port (1925), built East Africa's leading hotel (Torr's, 'the Carlton of East Africa') and its first children's hospital, and entered politics. If you read this book mainly for Grogan's traverse of the continent, you'll be disappointed to find it covers only some 60 pages. But you should remember that this is a book about his life's achievements, although only someone with a serious interest in the ins and outs of Kenyan colonial politics will finish reading it. You're more likely to get to a point where Grogan's endless scheming and plans and family matters start losing their fascination. And you too may start wishing for "the application of that kindly method now used in farewell to beloved and too aged dogs" that Grogan had wished for towards the end of his life. Lost Lion of the Empire left me wishing that the publisher would reissue Grogan's From The Cape To Cairo as for me this remains the most interesting part of his life and it would be fascinating to read his account of his epic journey.
Reviewed by Alistair Boddy-Evans, About's guide to African history. 
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
| Important product disclaimer information about this About site. |
