The Book Smugglers Of Timbuktu: The Race To Reach The Fabled City And The Fantastic Effort To Save Its Past

Author: Charlie English

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $36.99 NZD
  • : 9780008184902
  • : HarperCollins Publishers Limited
  • : Harper Element
  • :
  • : 0.27
  • : January 2017
  • : 234mm X 153mm
  • : United Kingdom
  • : 36.99
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Charlie English
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  • : Paperback
  • : 517
  • :
  • : en
  • : 966.23054
  • : very good
  • :
  • : 320
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Barcode 9780008184902
9780008184902

Description

Two tales of a city: The historical race to reach one of the world's most mythologized places, and the story of how a contemporary band of archivists and librarians, fighting to save its ancient manuscripts from destruction at the hands of al Qaeda, added another layer to the legend. To Westerners, the name "Timbuktu" long conjured a tantalising paradise, an African El Dorado where even the slaves wore gold. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, a series of explorers gripped by the fever for "discovery" tried repeatedly to reach the fabled city. But one expedition after another went disastrously awry, succumbing to attack, the climate, and disease. Timbuktu was rich in another way too. A medieval centre of learning, it was home to tens of thousands of ancient manuscripts, on subjects ranging from religion to poetry, law to history, pharmacology, and astronomy. When al-Qaeda-linked jihadists surged across Mali in 2012, threatening the existence of these precious documents, a remarkable thing happened: a team of librarians and archivists joined forces to spirit the manuscripts into hiding. Relying on extensive research and firsthand reporting, Charlie English expertly twines these two suspenseful strands into a fascinating account of one of the planet's extraordinary places, and the myths from which it it has become inseparable.

Reviews

Praise for Charlie English: 'A finely written and many-sided account ... Charlie English deftly weaves together history, reportage, travelogue and memoir into a gentle, erudite and at times beautiful book' Robert Macfarlane 'A cracking read' Economist 'An enchanting tale ... I was gripped' Joanna Kavenna

Author description

Charlie is the former head of international news at the Guardian and author of 'The Snow Tourist'.