What hope is there for Africa? Since the heady days of decolonisation the story seems to be one of unrelenting disaster - dictatorship, ethnic conflict, civil war, and economic failure. This book paints a vivid and convincing picture of solid political, social and economic progress. [Jonathan Lawley and John Hare have] an incredible tale to tell. Here is a pair of books that, placed with a decanter of whisky on the bedside table of any Spectator reader's guest bedroom, will have the reading-light burning late into the night.... Lawley has an optimistic story to tell here; but this reviewer loved best his tales, told more in the workaday prose of a Wilfred Thesiger than the poetry of a romantic.