The title tage for Maximum City by Suketu Mehta is “Bombay Lost and Found.” This is an extremely well written ( Mehtu is a Pulitzer Prize finalist ) and interesting book written from the perspective of someone who used to live there, moved to the United States and then returned years later.

In the first part of the book Mehta describes returning to Bombay and the process of finding an apartment and fitting in.

This is made particularly difficult due to the Renter’s Act. This meant that landlord’s could not raise rents so they would refuse to do any repairs in the hope that the tenant would move out.

The book is divided into three parts. In each Mehtu explores Bombay ( Mumbai ) through the lives of a variety of people from all walks of life. The three sections are titled Power, Pleasure and Passages. 

Mehta introduces us to life in Bombay seen through the eyes of a huge cast of characters.

These range from street level mafia enforcers, murderers and hit men, mafia bosses who control huge sections of the city, politicians and Bollywood producers to an incorruptible police chief and other policemen who kill criminals because of a corrupt and stagnant judiciary.

Mehta also looks at the bar and sex scene in Bombay. This is done through his contact and friendship with a very popular dancing girl. We see life in Bombay through her eyes. 

There is also Honey who is a dancer as well, but is actually a married man.

Through The Darkness by Judith Todd is a book about Zimbabwe, with a difference. The author is the daughter of  the late Sir Garfield Todd who was Prime Minister of  Rhodesia ( Zimbabwe ) in 1953.

Todd and his daughter were both arrested and detained by the Smith regime in 1972 because of their support for the political aspirations of the African majority in the country.

Judith Todd and her father was eventually released from detention and she was expelled from the country. She was unable to return until 1980 when Robert Mugabe and his political party Zanu (PF) took over the government of the newly independent Zimbabwe.

Judith Todd has devoted a huge portion of her life to the people of Zimbabwe. For many years she ran the Zimbabwe Project which helped many dispossessed people to establish businesses and improve their lives after independence.

What I liked about this book is that it differs in several ways from other books about Zimbabwe. It is written by someone who was not only born there, but also lived there until she was expelled by the Smith regime. As soon as Smith was toppled she returned to do do her utmost to help build and improve her country.

The author provides us with a rare look at much of what went on from the moment Robert Mugabe took power. Many people are of the opinion that the first few years of his rule were reasonable and benign;  that it was only recently that circumstances really deteriorated in the country.

Judith Todd’s book reveals that this was not the case. She outlines how, right from the beginning, Mugabe pressed for a one party state. She reveals how  Zimbabweans were trained by North Korea ( the infamous 5 Brigade ) and how they were apparently involved in the Matabeleland massacre and other atrocities. She describes how  there was a concerted effort to eliminate other political parties and people who had struggled against the Smith regime because they did not support the ruling party.

Judith Todd’s book is also a memoir of her family and a testament to the incredible service her mother and father gave to their adopted land. The author’s aid work, family and personal connections give us an intriguing insight into how things deteriorated in Zimbabwe.

The author was able to gain access to just about every minister and politician with the possible exception of Mugabe himself. She had close connections and involvement with diplomats, ambassadors, foreign politicians and even some heads of state;  all of which I found fascinating.  

Without “blowing her own horn” the reader understands how incredibly courageous and committed she is. In one part of the book Todd alludes to the fact that she was raped  by one of the regime’s senior officers,  she continues to press for fairness, justice and help for her countrymen. She has an inability to see, judge or categorize people based on race or colour, however, she is not afforded the same respect or consideration by the regime.

Todd’s tenacity and courage eventually make her persona non grata in her own country and she has her passport canceled. The regime’s aim is to make life as difficult as possible for her. The government of New Zealand ( her parents place of birth ) comes to her rescue with a passport and a personal note from the Prime Minister, thus allowing her the freedom to travel.

In many ways this book reads like a personal diary. There are numerous acronyms, but there is an explanatory glossary of abbreviations at the beginning of the book. I found this book difficult to put down.

The personal relationship that Judith Todd had with so many of the “movers and shakers” was fascinating and compelling as was her desire to help people regardless of their circumstance. This is a must read for anyone interested in a real “behind the scenes” look at how life in one of Africa’s most prosperous countries became a disaster for all but a very few.

Douglas Rogers book The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe won the 2010 Best travel Book by the British Guild of Travel Writers. If you are looking for a good  book to read, this one has received accolades from numerous reviewers including those at The Times, Mail on Sunday, Time Magazine and many many more.

The last resort is a part-memoir written by New York journalist Douglas Rogers. It covers the events of post colonial Africa focusing on Zimbabwe under the leadership of seasoned dictator, Robert Mugabe.

Rogers's parents, Lyn and Rosalind  had lived and built their life in Zimbabwe. The Last Resort was written after Rogers returned to Zimbabwe where he found that once beautiful land wrecked by the long ruling ZANU-PF.

Douglas Rogers was born and raised in Zimbabwe and later  became a journalist based in New York. In the book he reflects on the harsh post-colonial life under Robert Mugabe one of the world's longest serving dictators.

In the memoir, Rogers captures the resilience and the undying attitude of  Zimbabweans, both blacks and the few remaining whites,  especially his parents, that has enabled them to endure appalling  conditions. Douglas Rodgers goes beyond race to tell the life of  ordinary Zimbabweans and their determination to survive in a near failed state.

A Home For Diamond Smugglers, Soldiers and Spies

The Last Resort, is in part a chronicle of the changing life in pre-colonial and post-colonial Zimbabwe is centred in part on the declining tourism industry and its effect on Rogers' parents. They are two of the whites who had enjoyed living in Zimbabwe until Robert Mugabe began attacking and imprisoning  ordinary Zimbabweans and forcefully taking up land owned by white farmers. All of this in order to consolidate his authoritarian grip on the country.

The author's parents were in some ways fortunate. They owned a small resort  which his father, a retired lawyer had started several years previously. It  consisted of backpacker lodge on land that was not very suitable for farming. They had tried to establish a wild life game reserve in order to attract tourists, but as the the recession and mismanagement in the country deepened most of the animals ended up being poached for food.

A Wild Life Reserve Where the Animals Have Been Eaten

After several years of Mugabe and Zanu (PF) rule, life became increasingly difficult and often unbearable for both white and black Zimbabweans. With tourism practically dead, the Rogers's once attractive and comfortable resort was sort of sublet by the author's parents and reduced to a combination of brothel, a circuit for smuggling diamonds and a home for soldiers and spies. The resort also doubled  as the home for displaced whites, political dissidents and other farm workers.

Upon returning to the land of  his birth, Douglas Rogers is impressed by how his parents, other whites and some black Zimbabweans have befriended each other to form a beacon of hope in an appalling political and economic situation.

They are resilient, persevering and willing to hold on. They have devised new ways to survive in a country with galloping inflation, an oppressed society and where access to basic necessities, especially food and health care is often impossible. But how long will they hold on?

The Last Resort is a chronicle of the life of a nation stuck between a dark past, a terrifying present and an impatient future. It recognizes and tells the big story of citizens who are exposed to some of the worst political conditions on earth, but their determination to move on keeps them hoping for a brighter future. The memoir is a must read for anybody interested in post-colonial Zimbabwe. It covers the life, tactics and business acumen many find necessary to survive  under Mugabe's authoritarian rule.

The author uses humour and numerous anecdotes to paint a picture of how so many people are trying to survive in Zimbabwe. His tales of business  innovation, brothel management. smuggling, violence and bribery are frequently hair raising and often funny. Douglas Rogers has written a heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious and fascinating book about life in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. If you have enjoyed the other books I have recommended on Zimbabwe, I am sure you will find this book by Douglas Rogers equally enthralling. Please at it to your list of good books to read.

A life In Secrets by Sarah Helm. This book is subtitled Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of World War II. It is the fascinating story of Vera Atkins of the Special Operations Executive or SOE and the secret agents she trained and sent to France.

The SOE was formed in 1940 in order to conduct sabotage and espionage in German occupied Europe as well as to assist local resistance groups. 

The SOE was a secret organization sometimes called "Churchill's Secret Army" or "The Baker Street Irregulars", named after the street on which its main London office stood.

Vera Atkins who was in large part responsible for the SOE section devoted to recruiting, training, mentoring and running secret agents in France.

The agents were both men and women, several of whom were trained as wireless transmitter operators. For the most part they were not trained military personnel but civilians. At the time it was unheard of for women to be recruited for such a perilous wartime job.

A Story of Betrayal and Incompetence

The agents were told that they had a fifty percent chance of surviving and each was given a cyanide capsule in case of capture.

In the book Sarah Helm investigates many aspects of the Vera Atkins, SOE story. Through her painstaking research we are introduced to the agents themselves, especially the women for whom Atkins felt a special responsibility.

The author recounts the shocking incompetence of the SOE which resulted in agents being parachuted straight into the arms of the Gestapo. Judging by the evidence that Helm assembled it was absolutely criminal that the SOE were not aware that they were being duped by German wireless operators or that one or more of the SOE agents was a traitor.

Secrecy, Concentration Camps and Murder

The author also investigates Vera Atkins life and family history. She was born in Romania of Jewish heritage, but for many reasons remained extremely secretive about her personal life and many aspects of her work. Sarah Helm was able to interview her in 1998 two years before her death but even then Atkins had "closed the book" on her past.

The author also had access to records relating to the SOE that were made public sixty years after the war and it is from these, as well as the personal papers of some of those involved in the story that she was able to assemble the facts surrounding this amazing story.

At the end of the war Atkins spent months in Europe trying to discover what had happened to the many SOE agents who had been captured by the Germans. This part of the book makes for a gripping read as Helm describes how Vera Atkins tracked down and interrogated some the Germans who had been involved in the murder of several agents, in particular four of the women.

This is a fascinating and gripping book. Sarah Helm travelled to Germany, France, Romania and Canada to unearth many of the details behind the story. She interviewed Atkins family members as well as those of many of the people who were featured in the book, including former Nazis. If you read Agent Zigzag, this will add to the picture of Britain's clandestine operations in Europe.

Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Missing Agents of WWII

The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard is the inspiring, hair raising and wonderfully written account of  Scott's second expedition to the Antarctic. Apsley Cherry-Garrard was one of the youngest members of the team which set out in 1910.

The working title for the book was "Never Again, Scott, Some Penguins and the Pole" the author also toyed with the title "To Hell With Scott".  "Worst Journey," "Never Again" and "To Hell" are all words which sum up this unbelievable Antarctic adventure.

In addition to being a scientific venture, Scott and four companions also hoped to become the first men to reach the South Pole. As we know they were beaten to their goal by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, only perished in a blizzard on their return journey only 11 miles from a food depot.

The author was initially not chosen to go on the Terra Nova Expedition to the South Pole because he was not a scientist. Despite being rejected,  he re-applied, promising to pay £1,000 ( more than £50,000 today or $75,000 ). Scott rejected him a second time, but Cherry-Garrard contributed the money anyway.

This gesture, as well as an endorsement by Dr. Bill Wilson, Scott's friend and the expedition's surgeon, zoologist and artist resulted in Cherry-Garrard being accepted as assistant zoologist.

A Gripping, Hair Raising, Page-Turner

We can be thankful that Cherry was chosen for the expedition. Through him we have a first hand account of this unbelievably tough, difficult and unforgiving adventure. The author's wonderful prose give us a fascinating  and detailed look at the explorers' every day life and the harrowing experiences they encountered. This books is a gripping and hair raising page-turner.

There are descriptions of circling Orcas waiting for their chance to get at men and ponies frantically trying to get off floating ice floes onto shore.

Through Cherry we get a clear picture of the other expedition members and their personalities. They remained gentlemen and were always courteous to each despite the incredible strain they were under.. We are introduced to Antarctic weather in a manner which will have you reaching for a blanket, even on a warm day.

While Scott's expedition to the South Pole is one worst journey, Cherry also describes  his  own"worst journey"  which he and two companions ( Wilson and Bowers) narrowly survived.

They Nearly Died To Get An Egg

They set out for Cape Crozier to find a colony of Emperor Penguins in order to bring back an egg for science. This trip entailed pulling sleds for miles over jagged ice, in impossible conditions at temperatures which sometimes dipped to more than -70 F.

The men were caught in a blizzard, their tent, the one thing that meant the difference between life and death, was blown away. Miraculously, a day later they found it and somehow managed to survive their incredible ordeal.

Throughout the book Cherry comes through as a thoroughly nice person who had tremendous respect and affection for fellow sufferers. One of the explorers, Birdie Bowers who was to perish with Scott was probably the  most enthusiastic and toughest of them all. His ability to tolerate unbelievably cold temperatures with a modicum of clothing was legendary. He was always on the go and fascinated by everything around him.

Cherry was part of the party that eventually set out to find Scott and his companions. They were discovered frozen in their tent on November 12, 1912.

When Cherry and the surviving team members finally returned to England he immediately joined Royal Air Service and served for a short time in Belgium. The Worst Journey in The World was published in 1922 after many revisions. Cherry received invaluable help from his friend and neighbour George Bernard Shaw.

The Worst Journey In The World has been heralded the best true adventure book ever written. This book is a fascinating classic which belongs in any serious reader's library.

No personal library should be without a copy of "Three men In A Boat." Although it was written in 1889 it is timeless. It is a book I find myself reading every other year or so. It is in the top three or four of my all time favourite good books to read.

This is also probably the funniest book you will ever come across. Although he wrote this more than a hundred years ago, Jerome K. Jerome's humour is something that we can all identify with, proving that a good sense of humour is ageless.

The book is based on events which actually happened, and as Jerome wrote in his preface to the first edition: "all that has been done is to colour them; and, for this, no extra charge has been made".

Don't Forget The Dog

Three Men In A Boat features Jerome, George, Harris and Montmorency ( a dog ). It was written in part as a guide to the River Thames, but it is much more than that. I believe we can all recognize ourselves in this wonderful story.

The book begins with the three men feeling somewhat "seedy", followed by a wonderful description of hypochondria as Jerome relates how he convinces himself that he has every ailment going when he decides to delve into a medical text book.

He peruses various pages of medical diagnoses, becoming more and more certain that he has the symptoms of everything from distemper to typhoid fever.

The trio and dog decide a boating vacation on the Thames is just what the doctor ordered. Everything from preparing for the trip, the trip itself, the camping and the dining will have you laughing out loud.

This is a trip where what can go wrong does go wrong. If it doesn't,  well Jerome K. Jerome can remember a similar situation in which it did and he is happy to tell us all about it.

Montmorency, the dog, is an essential part of the story who makes his own contribution to the humour and the stew by bringing a dead rat onto the boat.

As the three men pass different landmarks Jerome K. Jerome muses on a host of topics from Henry VIII, to food, to music, to dogs, to friendship and a host of other things.

Three men In A Boat also gives us a fascinating view of how people lived in the latter part of Victoria's reign. Even at that time Jerome find himself missing the "good old days". Life in 1890 was becoming a bit too much, a bit too fast paced for him, especially with all the new inventions that were continually popping up.

If you haven't read Three Men In A Boat, please, please do so. If you are ever stuck for a gift at Christmas or for a birthday you can't go wrong giving this book. You can be assured the recipient will be very grateful.

Three Men In A Boat (To Say Nothing Of The Dog…)

The tag line for this book is "One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago", the book is also available under the title Spanish Steps. Tim Moore is a British writer and humorist who in addition to several very amusing travel books has also written for a number of  newspapers and magazines including The Sunday Times and Esquire.  

In this book the author does something that I would love to do some day. He walks the ancient pilgrimage route or Camino to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

The route he takes is a five hundred mile hike from St. Jean Pied de Port  on the French side of the Pyrenees to the Cathedral at Santiago, the resting place of St. James.

Many people do this pilgrimage each year, but Tim Moore, always on the look out for ways to make his adventures more interesting and unusual, decides to enlist the help of a donkey named Shinto.

He does this despite being fearful of donkeys and not having a clue about the basics of donkey care. This he obviously has to learn out of necessity. Shinto and Moore find themselves experiencing many adventures along the way.

They are subjected to all kinds of weather from torrential downpours to scorching heat. As they make their way towards Santiago de Compostela they come in contact with a mixed collection of other pilgrims and locals.

A Donkey With a Mind of its Own

Shinto of course attracts a lot of attention which on occasion results in some funny and at times difficult situations. Moore soon discovers that trying to coax a stubborn and often truculent donkey to obey his wishes is not always easy. To the author's chagrin, his young daughter has no trouble getting Shinto to do what she wants when Moore's family visits him along the way.

Shinto has a mind of his own and is not always happy about having to walk all day. This,  along with trying to find accommodation and food for the two of them leads to a number of very  amusing incidents.

The author is a keen observer of people and his encounters with fellow travellers and locals along the route are often fascinating and extremely funny.

In parts Tim Moore's writing is absolutely hilarious, especially his descriptions of some of the difficulties he encounters dealing with Shinto.

This is a wonderful book full of colour and life and if I ever get to walk the route myself, this book is going with me. I recommend this for anyone looking for a funny, light and interesting adventure travel book.

Travels with My Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago

The Tangerine in question is not an orange in someone's pocket or backpack but Ibn Battutah, born in Tangier, Morocco in 1304. At the age of twenty one he set out on a journey that would eventually cover some 75,000 miles at a time when travelling was not a simple, safe or comfortable affair.

Ibn Battutah was Islam's greatest traveler and his wanderings took him to such places as Iraq, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, Somalia, the coast of East Africa, the Byzantine Empire, central Asia, India and China.

Tim Mackintosh-Smith is an Arabist who studied classical Arabic at Oxford University and is also fluent in colloquial Arabic. Like IB he set out at twenty one for Arabia, eventually settling in Yemen.

The Greatest Traveler of the Middle Ages

In this book the author recounts his adventures following the first part of Ibn Battutah's travels which took the great man from Morocco across to Egypt and then to the Middle East. From there he made his way to modern day Oman and back to Turkey and the Crimea Peninsula.

In "Travels with a Tangerine" IB is the author's guide and the present and past are expertly intertwined to give us a fascinating view of how things were as seen through Ibn Battutah's eyes in the latter part of the Middle Ages and what they are like now.

This is not just a book about what IB did and saw, we learn about his personality, foibles, worries, personal tastes and weaknesses. In all we get a complete picture of Ibn Battutah and the world in which he lived.

This is a fascinating book from a number of perpectives. Not only did I learn about IB, but TSM's ( the author ) remarkable knowledge and experience of the Muslim world makes this an important book for learning about present day Islam and the history of the region.

As TSM follows in IB's foot steps he recounts numerous personal anecdotes, adventures and encounters all of which make this an enjoyable and exciting travel book.

Some people may find this book a little slow in places, but this is a small price to pay for a fascinating look at the Middle East as it is today and as it was more than 600 years ago.

Tim Mackintosh Smith followed this book with two more chronicling the further travels and adventures of Ibn Battutah.

Travels with a Tangerine: From Morocco to Turkey in the Footsteps of Islam's Greatest Traveler

Thumbs up for Sgt. Dan Mills of The Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, he has written a cracking book about his experiences as a sniper in Iraq in 2004.

Sniper One is Mills's first book and a must read if you are interested in what it was really like to be in Iraq following the invasion to oust Saddam Hussein. If you where there I am sure that this you will find this book equally gripping.

At the time of writing Mills, at age 36, had been a soldier for eighteen years and a sniper for ten. Despite six tours of duty in Northern Ireland, one in Bosnia and one in Kosovo he had never had to fire his rifle in anger. All of that was to change for him and the fifteen man sniper platoon he headed soon after arriving in Iraq in April 2004.

Since September 2003 Moqtada al-Sadr had declared himself head of an Iraqi shadow government. His intention was to govern according to strict Islamic rules and in order to remain in control he started to do away with rival leaders.

The Americans finally decided to arrest him in March 2004 for murder. He retaliated by mobilizing the Mehdi Army and by April fighting or what was know as the al-Sadr uprising had begun. By the middle of the month severe casualties had been sustained by a number of coalition troops including the Italians, Americans and British.

"A Filthy Truckstop For Petrol and A Punch-up".

It was into this storm that Mills and his platoon were sent. They were assigned to Al Amarah the capital of Maysan Province in the south of the country. In Mills's words it was "a squalid, stinking dump", that soon turned out to be extremely dangerous. The soldiers were based at CIMIC House a walled compound near the Tigris River, that they would soon be defending to the death.

Within hours of arriving at Al Amarah Mills and his platoon find themselves fighting for their lives during a routine patrol. One of the platoon is badly injured and their Snatch Land Rover destroyed.

Broken Toilets and Mortar Fire

From that moment on the book is pretty well non stop action. Sgt. Dan Mills writes in a way that barely allows you to take a breath. His description of everything going on around him is vivid, compelling and really exciting. This is a first class book if you want to get some idea of what the war in iraq was like, complete with whizzing bullets, Rocket propelled grenades, air strikes and even broken toilets.

The reader gets an clear idea of the tactical considerations and planning which are necessary to wage urban war. We learn what it is like to be a sniper enduring constant mortar bombardment and what it is like to be under attack while on foot patrol. 

The author introduces us to the men in his platoon, their bravery and strange habits. As you can imagine the language is often colourful and descriptive, but you learn that a good sense of humour is a must for this job. This is a compelling read and I highly recommend it.

Sniper One: On Scope and Under Siege with a Sniper Team in Iraq