Based on his copious correspondence Lamb recounts Stewart Gore-Browne's struggle to create an ideal English estate in the wilds of Northern Rhodesia: brick cottages for workers, forty-room mansion for himself, family portraits, liveried servants, dressing for dinner and all. Outrageous Edwardian folie de grandeur? Yes, but add his sad, self-deceiving relationship with his aunt and wife and his heroic commitment to black political empowerment and a more complex figure emerges. A truly extraordinary story.
(Annabel Bedini - bwl 39 April 2007 ) |
