But his encounters with the natives, aid workers and occasional tourists make for rollicking entertainment, even as they offer a sobering look at the social and political chaos in which much of Africa finds itself. At times, he goes out of his way to satisfy some perverse curmudgeonly desire to pick theological disputes with Christian missionaries. 'You'll have some great stuff for your book.' That seems to be the strategy for Theroux's extended 'experience of vanishing' into the African continent, where disparate incidents reveal Theroux as well as the people he meets. 'You'll have a terrible time,' one diplomat tells Theroux upon discovering the prolific writer's plans to hitch a ride hundreds of miles along a desolate road to Nairobi instead of taking a plane. Paul Theroux divides his time between Cape Cod and the Hawaiian islands. The Mosquito Coast and Dr Slaughter have both been made into successful films. Paul Theroux's books include Dark Star Safari, Ghost Train to the Eastern Star, Riding the Iron Rooster, The Great Railway Bazaar, The Elephanta Suite, A Dead Hand, The Tao of Travel and The Lower River.

'Always a terrific teller of tales and conjurer of exotic locales, he writes lean prose that lopes along at a compelling pace'Sunday Times

the most gifted, most prodigal writer of his generation'Jonathan Raban 'One needs energy to keep up with the extraordinary, productive restlessness of Paul Theroux. 'Theroux's work remains the standard by which other travel writing must be judged' Observer It is Theroux in his element - a trip where chance encounter is everything, where departure and arrival times are an irrelevance, and where contentment can be found balancing on the top of a truck in the middle of nowhere. Safari in Swahili simply means 'journey', and this is the ultimate safari. It is a journey of discovery and of rediscovery - of the unknown and the unexpected, but also of people and places he knew as a young and optimistic teacher forty years before. Travelling across bush and desert, down rivers and across lakes, and through country after country, Theroux visits some of the most beautiful landscapes on earth, and some of the most dangerous.

Dark Star Safari is Paul Theroux's now classic account of a journey from Cairo to Cape Town.

Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux