TITLE.................... ....: LOST LION OF EMPIRE
SUBTITLE..................: THE LIFE OF CAPE-TO-CAIRO GROGAN
AUTHOR................. ..: EDWARD PAICE
PUBLISHER...............:HARPER COLLINS, LONDON
DATE & EDITION.......:2001, 1st
COVER SIZE (mm)....: 158 x 240
CONDITION...............: very good
DUST JACKET...........: slight wear & creasing to extremities, CLIPPED (grrr)
COVERS.....................: black boards, slight age soiling with slight wear to edges
SPINE.........................: with silver title, slight wear to extremities, sunned
END & FLY PAPERS.: good, with maps
PAGES.......................: 470 pp including index, clean
BINDING....................: tight
PLATES & MAPS.......:
INSCRIPTIONS..........: signed by author on title page
ISBN...........................: 0-00-257003-3
PUBLISHER PRICE...:GBP 19.99
SYNOPSIS, BLURB...: "Ewart Grogan, a gentleman adventurer and the ´ boldest and baddest of a bold,bad gang" of pioneering settlers in Kenya, was one of the most brilliant and controversial figures of African colonial history. When he proposed to a young heiress, Gertrude Coleman, he needed to prove himself a "somebody" to her father in order to win her hand. He did so in inimitable style, announcing that he intended to accomplish the first south-to-north traverse of Africa. In 1900, after two years of illness and extreme hardship, he arrived triumphantly in Cairo. He became an instant celebrity and returned to England to marry his beloved Gertrude. Now with a considerable fortune at his disposal, after a short but successful spell in South Africa he arrived in British East Africa. There he was immediately acknowledged as a leader by his fellow pioneers, and embarked on a lifetime of grand and seemingly over-ambitious designs, forced through despite government inertia, enormous natural obstacles and the looming threat of bankruptcy. Time after time he proved the doubters wrong, as he pulled off the seemingly impossible. Despite this frenetic activity, and despite his unwavering adoration for Gertrude, he succeeded in running three separate families and father numerous children by various mothers. The abrasive and glamorous Grogan, with Delamare, was one of the founding fathers of Kenya - This book is a brilliant and powerful account both of the life of an exceptional man and the birth of a country."
