An extraordinary, passionate and personal journey into Africa's past.

Meshing together Africa's colonial history and the personalities of that time with his own memories of the turbulent twentieth century and its characters, Stephen Taylor will travel from Lake Victoria to the Cape of Good Hope - from the place that represents the peak of colonial exploration in Africa to the first settling place of his own family. His description and re-evaluation of the colonial period shows it in all its drama, glamour and disreputableness - a wilder version of the Raj.

Through this present-day journey, Taylor will trace the legacy of Africa's history and, in particular, of the place in it of the Whites. The journey will be a quest for understanding: of the colonial impulse, of his own curious ambivalence towards the great continent in which he grew up, and of the southern African countries' - in particular South Africa's - future. It will be a wonderfully evocative, lyrical description of some of the most dramatic lands in the world - thoughtful, historical, philosophical travel writing of the best kind.