Little Black Classics - the new series to celebrate Penguin's 80th anniversary
'While engaged on this hunt I felt the earth quiver under my feet, and heard a soft big soughing sound, and looking round saw I had dropped in on a hippo banquet...'
Told with verve and self-mocking wit, the adventures of doughty female Victorian explorer Mary Kingsley describe stumbling upon five hippos by night, dodging elephants and fighting off a leopard with a stool.
One of the most witty and thoughtful of Victorian explorers, Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) travelled in West Africa to study local customs and the natural history of the region and greatly influenced European ideas about Africa and African people. Kingsley wrote two books about her experiences: Travels in West Africa (1897), which was an immediate bestseller, and West African Studies (1899).
