Product Description

A satire on England today. Taking an orphaned South African bushman as his David Livingstone character, the author transposes him to England where English follies and absurdities are only too apparent. The novel surveys some institutions, such as the class system, the press, and Parliament.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3068051 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Customer Reviews

Decent Premise-Driven Satire
This satirical novel is totally dependent upon, and carried by, its outstanding premise. A South African bushman is raised by a Boer farmer and learns to read English by reading the farmer's collection of colonial-era travel narratives (Livingstone, Burton, etc...). Flash-forward to the early 1990s-the bushman's people are under severe threat and decide that they will appeal to the Queen of England for aid. Our hero is appointed by his people to travel to England as an ambassador, to present an old pledge made by Queen Victoria to protect the interests of the bushmen and petition the current Queen for help. He's also acting as an explorer, scouting England out as a place for settlement. With this conceit driving it, the bushman sets out for England and recounts his adventures in an archaic exploreresque travelogue. He brims with naïveté, allowing Hope to unleash all manner of wry commentarty and satire on contemporary England. Sometimes this is fluid and funny, but often it is a touch too heavy-handed. The premise manages to carry the reader all the way through, but barely.

From the cover............

Faith, courage and a way with the natives, these gifts carried the great African explorers -- Livingstone, Stanley and Mungo Park -- through the dark continent. They also stood David Mungo Booi in good stead on one of the last great journeys of modern times, the exploration of Darkest England.

Booi is the descendant of the San or Bushmen who once lived in the distant African Karoo. Chosen by a conclave of elders, travelling on funds raised by public subscription, sponsored by The Society for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of England, David Mungo Booi embarks on a mission never before attempted by civilized people: to explore England as a site suitable for settlement and to assess if the natives are friendly and capable. He sets out to answer ancient questions about this strange island race: why do they believe there will always be an England? Did they build Jerusalem in their green and pleasant land? Above all, will their queen redeem the promise made by Victoria to save her loyal Red People of the Karoo? David Booi's epic journey takes him from prison to Parliament, from asylum to Palace. Battling each step of the way against treachery, cruelty, superstition and disease, his English notebooks tell of an exploration as heroic as any African safari and a good deal darker.