Old Serpent Nile: A Journey to the Source - Hardcover

Stewart, Stanley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719548640 ISBN 13: 9780719548642

Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd, 1991

Synopsis

The author recounts his journey down the Nile from mouth to source. He covers 4000 miles over nine months, visiting desert monastries, sailing by felucca, meeting the victims of famine in Sudan and narrowly escaping the attentions of the Ugandan army.

About this title

Review:

‘Stewart must now be considered among the very first rank of contemporary travel writers’
Robert Carver, TLS

From the Back Cover:

Late one night in Rome, Stanley Stewart found himself by Bernini's 'Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, beneath the figure that represents the Nile. Its head was enveloped in a veil – an allusion to the fact that the sources of the Nile were the unknown. Seduced by this image of concealment and expectation, he resolved to travel the length of the Nile from mouth to source, from the moment of promise to the moment of revelation.

His journey, from the Nile Delta to the Mountains of the Moon, was arduous, colourful, funny, horrifying and sometimes wildly dangerous. Whether on a pilgrimage to desert monasteries, aboard a felucca sailing to the splendours of ancient Egypt, crossing the Nubian desert, meeting the victims of famine in Sudan, or narrowly escaping the attentions of the Ugandan army, Stewart tells his story with warmth, wit and understanding.

At the heart of the book is the great river itself, constant, incredible, beguiling, source of life and of death to the millions who live along its banks. Evocative and compelling, 'Old Serpent Nile' is in the finest tradition of travel writing.

"Immensely well-written... as intriguing and as changeable as the Nile'
SUNDAY TIMES

"Like a cross between Eric Newby and Bruce Chatwin"
DAILY TELEGRAPH

About this edition

• Publisher: John Murray Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0719548640
• ISBN 13: 9780719548642
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 248