Mimi and Toutou Go Forth
Mimi and Toutou Go Forth

Author: Giles Foden

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2005-07-07

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 0141946571

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At the start of World War One, German warships controlled Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa. The British had no naval craft at all upon 'Tanganjikasee', as the Germans called it. This mattered: it was the longest lake in the world and of great strategic advantage. In June 1915, a force of 28 men was despatched from Britain on a vast journey. Their orders were to take control of the lake. To reach it, they had to haul two motorboats with the unlikely names of Mimi and Toutou through the wilds of the Congo. The 28 were a strange bunch -- one was addicted to Worcester sauce, another was a former racing driver -- but the strangest of all of them was their skirt-wearing, tattoo-covered commander, Geoffrey Spicer-Simson. Whatever it took, even if it meant becoming the god of a local tribe, he was determined to cover himself in glory. But the Germans had a surprise in store for Spicer-Simson, in the shape of their secret 'supership' the Graf von Gotzen . . . Unearthing new German and African records, the prize-winning author of The Last King of Scotland retells this most unlikely of true-life tales with his customary narrative energy and style. Fitzcarraldo meets Heart of Darkness, this is rich, vivid and flashmanesque in its appeal - military history at its most absorbing and entertaining

Mimi and Toutou Go Forth
Mimi and Toutou Go Forth

Author: Giles Foden

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2005-07-07

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 0141009845

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At the start of the First World War, German warships controlled Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa. In June 1915, a force of 28 men was despatched from Britain on a vast journey to take control of the lake. Giles Foden retells this story.

Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure
Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure

Author: Giles Foden

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2010-03-10

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 0307538435

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When the First World War breaks out, the British navy is committed to engaging the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship—even if the body of water in question is a remote African lake and the enemy an intimidating fleet of German steamers. The leader of this improbable mission is Geoffrey Spicer-Simson whose navy career thus far had been distinguished by two sinkings. His seemingly impossible charge: to trek overland through the African bush hauling Mimi and Toutou—two forty-foot mahogany gunboats–with a band of cantankerous, insubordinate Scotsmen, Irishmen and Englishmen to defeat the Germans on Lake Tanganyika. With its powerfully evoked landscape, cast of hilariously colorful characters and remarkable story of hubris, ingenuity and perseverance, this incredibly bizarre story–inspiration for the classic film The African Queen–is history at its most entertaining and absorbing.

My Fourth Time, We Drowned
My Fourth Time, We Drowned

Author: Sally Hayden

Publisher: Melville House

Published: 2022-03-29

Total Pages: 449

ISBN-13: 1612199461

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Winner of The Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2022 Winner of The Michel Déon Prize 2022 Winner of the An Post Irish Book of the Year Award 2022 Winner of the An Post Irish Book Award for Nonfiction 2022 A Financial Times Best Political Book of 2022 A Kirkus Best Nonfiction Book of 2022 A New Yorker Best Book of 2022 A Guardian Best History and Politics Book of 2022 The Western world has turned its back on migrants, leaving them to cope with one of the most devastating humanitarian crises in history. Reporter Sally Hayden was at home in London when she received a message on Facebook: “Hi sister Sally, we need your help.” The sender identified himself as an Eritrean refugee who had been held in a Libyan detention center for months, locked in one big hall with hundreds of others. Now, the city around them was crumbling in a scrimmage between warring factions, and they remained stuck, defenseless, with only one remaining hope: contacting her. Hayden had inadvertently stumbled onto a human rights disaster of epic proportions. From this single message begins a staggering account of the migrant crisis across North Africa, in a groundbreaking work of investigative journalism. With unprecedented access to people currently inside Libyan detention centers, Hayden’s book is based on interviews with hundreds of refugees and migrants who tried to reach Europe and found themselves stuck in Libya once the EU started funding interceptions in 2017. It is an intimate portrait of life for these detainees, as well as a condemnation of NGOs and the United Nations, whose abdication of international standards will echo throughout history. But most importantly, My Fourth Time, We Drowned shines a light on the resilience of humans: how refugees and migrants locked up for years fall in love, support each other through the hardest times, and carry out small acts of resistance in order to survive in a system that wants them to be silent and disappear.

Lord of the Loincloth
Lord of the Loincloth

Author: Christopher Dow

Publisher:

Published: 2012-10-01

Total Pages: 556

ISBN-13: 9780985147709

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It’s World War I, and the fate of Africa lies in the hands of a madman—an eccentric Royal Navy commander who sank his two previous commands in the most ridiculous ways possible. Geoffrey Spicer-Simson is ordered to destroy two ships that give the Germans military control over the continent, but that may be easier said than done. The ships are on Lake Tanganyika, and to get there, Spicer-Simson and his men will have to drag two 40' gunboats over desert torn with ravines, through tsetse-infested swamps, and across a 6,000-foot range of mountains. Undaunted, Spicer-Simson forges ahead, but can his men accept the leadership of a pretentious braggart who names his gunboats Mimi and Toutou, is completely covered with tattoos, and wears a leather skirt instead of a uniform? And if the journey to the lake isn’t bizarre enough, imagine what happens when they get there and meet the Germans in mortal combat on the high seas in the middle of Africa! Lord of the Loincloth is the humorously adventurous account of one of the 20th century’s strangest heroes and his extraordinary quest for redemption.

The Last King of Scotland
The Last King of Scotland

Author: Giles Foden

Publisher: Faber & Faber

Published: 2008-09-04

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0571246176

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What would it be like to become Idi Amin's personal physician? Giles Foden's bestselling thriller is the story of a young Scottish doctor drawn into the heart of the Ugandan dictator's surreal and brutal regime. Privy to Amin's thoughts and ambitions, he is both fascinated and appalled. As Uganda plunges into civil chaos he realises action is imperative - but which way should he jump?

Freight Dogs
Freight Dogs

Author: Giles Foden

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published: 2022-06-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781409137429

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'Every new novel by Giles Foden is something to celebrate' Paul Theroux 'An amazing and profound work, rich in memorable detail' Jay Parini 'Foden has cleverly reworked the grand African adventure novel' Aminatta Forna, Guardian 'A perceptive, compassionate history of an enormously complex conflict' Irish Times 'Sharp and fast-paced. Foden does a fine job of locating the reader in the maelstrom of this brutal period in Congo's past, taking us deep into the heart of a complex conflict' Observer 1996: in a Ugandan dive bar, the 'freight dogs' gather. An anarchic group of mercenary pilots from Texas, Russia, Kenya and Belgium who transport weapons between warring African nations, without allegiance. And tonight they have a new recruit - Manu, a nineteen-year-old cowherd fleeing Congo's bloody war. Taken in by this band of unlikely brothers, Manu hopes to reinvent himself. But no matter how fast he flies, trouble always seems to follow closely behind...

Information Arts
Information Arts

Author: Stephen Wilson

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2003-02-28

Total Pages: 980

ISBN-13: 9780262731584

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An introduction to the work and ideas of artists who use—and even influence—science and technology. A new breed of contemporary artist engages science and technology—not just to adopt the vocabulary and gizmos, but to explore and comment on the content, agendas, and possibilities. Indeed, proposes Stephen Wilson, the role of the artist is not only to interpret and to spread scientific knowledge, but to be an active partner in determining the direction of research. Years ago, C. P. Snow wrote about the "two cultures" of science and the humanities; these developments may finally help to change the outlook of those who view science and technology as separate from the general culture. In this rich compendium, Wilson offers the first comprehensive survey of international artists who incorporate concepts and research from mathematics, the physical sciences, biology, kinetics, telecommunications, and experimental digital systems such as artificial intelligence and ubiquitous computing. In addition to visual documentation and statements by the artists, Wilson examines relevant art-theoretical writings and explores emerging scientific and technological research likely to be culturally significant in the future. He also provides lists of resources including organizations, publications, conferences, museums, research centers, and Web sites.

Turbulence
Turbulence

Author: Giles Foden

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2010-08-17

Total Pages: 337

ISBN-13: 0307593657

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The D-day landings—the fate of 2.5 million men, three thousand landing craft and the entire future of Europe depend on the right weather conditions on the English Channel on a single day. A team of Allied scientists is charged with agreeing on an accurate forecast five days in advance. But is it even possible to predict the weather so far ahead? And what is the relationship between predictability and turbulence, one of the last great mysteries of modern physics? Wallace Ryman has devised a system that comprehends all of this—but he is a reclusive pacifist who stubbornly refuses to divulge his secrets. Henry Meadows, a young math prodigy from the Met Office, is sent to Scotland to uncover Ryman’s system and apply it to the Normandy landings. But turbulence proves more elusive than anyone could have imagined. When Henry meets Gill, Ryman’s beautiful wife, events, like the weather, begin to spiral out of control. From Giles Foden, prizewinning author of The Last King of Scotland, a gripping blend of fact and fiction in a novel about how human beings deal with uncertainty.