African Follies

First edition, first impression. 224pp. In beige cloth-covered boards with red titles on spine. Top edge sprayed grey. 8vo. Cloth a little rounded at spine tips, titles faded, and mark on spine. Previous owner's name scrawled on front free endpaper in crayon, else internally neat, clean, bright and tight. The one-time actress recounts her experiences of travelling in Africa as secretary to one Mr Doe. As Michael Hogg put it in his review for the Daily Telegraphy, 'The Africa they saw was that of empires beginning to fray at the edges...it was not a Dark Continent that they saw but the seedy hinterland, with its decayed expats and hotels magnificent in name only; not an adventure that they got but discomfort, as they trekked dustily from barely-existing towns to uninhabitable resthouses'. But Tomkinson was a talented story-teller and conveys her experiences with wit and humour.