Welcome to the sixth and last leg of our World Tour, where we return to the cradle of mankind and make a roundtour with 10 gems from our catalog.

Let’s start our journey in Algeria, where we meet Tartarin of Tarascon who is in search of nothing less than lions. Read the funny novel by Alphonse Daudet about the French show-off – also available in French.

Travelling further along the coast and back in time, we make a brief stop in Egypt at the reign of one of its most famous queens. William Shakespeare gives his view on the well known story of Antony and Cleopatra.

Moving upstream on the Nile into the Sudan, we have a look at the Mahdist War of the late 19th century. We see it through the eyes of Winston Churchill who took part in the battle for Khartoum and wrote The River War.

A river in Uganda is the scene for a war of a different kind: In The Man Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures. John Henry Patterson details the long hunt for two lions that killed more than 108 men who were building a railway bridge across the Tsavo.

Lions and other animals feature prominently in Zanzibar Tales. The ancient tales of animals, some with a feel of 1001 Nights, were told to George W. Bateman by the natives of Tanzania.

Zanzibar is only the starting point in the book by R. M. Ballantyne. His novel Black Ivory tells about the slave trade in East Africa, which was well alive at a time when it was long forbidden on the West coast.

Moving further south, we get to the Zulu Kingdom. H. Rider Haggard tells Black Heart and White Heart, a story of love and betrayal during the time of Cetawayo, the last King of the independent Zulu nation.

These days, Zululand is a part of South Africa, just as the Karoo region, where Olive Schreiner spent part of her life. Her life and ideas form the basis of her best known novel The Story of an African Farm, which expresses some interestingly modern ideas.

Not quite so modern ideas, although they are by now means extinct, are expressed in the short poem The Congo. Although decidedly racist in its contents, it is interesting to note that its author Vachel Lindsay viewed himself as a supporter of African-American culture.

Finally, we get to travel from Sierra Leone to the peak of Cameroon with Mary H. Kingsley. Her book Travels in West Africa is an account of the adventures she had and insights she gained on her voyage of 1893.

Enjoy – and send a postcard!

October 4th is World Animal Day. That’s a perfect excuse to get your critters an extra treat and celebrate with 10 gems from our catalog.

Imagine taking a walk with your partner, and all of a sudden she turns into an animal. This is what happens to Richard Tebrick in David Garnett’s book Lady into Fox. How long will the metamorphosis of his wife last? And will he be able to conceal it?

Living with animals is not always easy. Nor is living with people. Hear all about the household of Kiki-the-Demure and Toby-Dog, or rather that of Colette Willy, in our dramatic reading of Barks and Purrs.

Just as cats and dogs, so can men and animals be friends. In the story Told Under a White Oak Tree, we hear about the tribulations of one of the first movie actors – as told by one of his friends, Bill Hart’s Pinto Pony.

There are many instances where animals work for humans. Details about the production of honey and how to tend to bees can be found in On the Hive and the Honey Bee by L. L. Langstroth, a master bee keeper.

Many more winged creatures, albeit of the feathered kind, are described in The Bird Study Book by Thomas Gilbert Pearson. An absolute must for any (hobby) ornithologist!

When she gets lost in the Australian Bush, little Dot makes her own studies of local, marsupial wild live. Her findings are described in Dot and the Kangaroo, a charming fairytale by Ethel C. Pedley.

In reality, wild animals tend to be less social when it comes to humans. Just like the bear Wahb, who desperately tries to stay out of human reach in The Biography of a Grizzly, noted down by Ernest Thompson Seton.

The clashing of human and animal habitat is one of the reasons for Our Vanishing Wild Life. The book by William T. Hornaday, written in 1913, has never been as hot a topic as nowadays.

Very cold instead it is on Penguin Island. When a short sighted priest mistakes the birds for humans and baptizes them, they begin to establish an almost human society. Read the satirical novel by Anatole France to find out if this was a good or bad thing.

Good and bad are traits only we posess, but we readily ascribe them to animals. This is especially apparent in the Fables for the Frivolous, a modernized variant of Jean de la Fontaine’s Fables, written in verse by Guy Wetmore Carryl.

Enjoy – and lots of bearhugs to you!