A Grave for a Dolphin.

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In the Epilogue to this book, the Duke Alberto Denti di Pirajno regrets that he and his African friends are ‘bound for different Paradises’, so that they will not be able to sit together in a ce­lestial garden, passing the time till the Last Trump by spinning wonderful stories. The loss will be that of the Duke’s African friends, for he has in a high de­gree the quality of a born story teller. His readers cease to worry about the how or why of his stories: they simply want to know:, and then what happened?’ The material for this book came from the writer’s experience as a doctor and administrator in Italy’s former African colonies. Children, animals and magic are the main themes. There is the story of Shambowa, who sported with sharks and was loved by a dolphin; of the Prior of Barentu who could talk to the wart-hogs; of the Father of the Crocodiles; of Hassib, the boy who was driven to distraction by La Reine des Tom-Toms; of the parrot who got drunk; of the condemned man who communed with a bird. Whether they are amusing, touch­ing or tall, they are all delightful; and even the strangest of them is more true to Africa in atmos­phere and feeling than many a sober treatise.

The Duke wrote this book, not in his native Italian but in Eng­lish: a gesture to celebrate his pleasure at revisiting this country, last year, for the first time since 1939.

source: jaquette

RECOMMENDED BY THE BOOK SOCIETY

eric gillett: ‘If Axel Munthe and the author (or authors) of the Arabian Nights had collaborated, the result would probably have been something like A Cure for Serpents.’                   (The Daily Telegraph)

harold nicolson: ‘He tells us story after story with all the charm and resource of Scheherazade herself… the book will be relished not only by those who have caught the desert fever, but also by those who enjoy the Thousand and One Nights.’         (The Observer)

cyril Connolly: ‘A delightful personality, warm, observant, cynical and astringent, with a zest that sug­gests a touch of Norman Douglas, Axel Munthe or Alan Brodrick. Doctors who are good raconteurs make wonderful reading.’           (The Sunday Times)

peter quennell: ‘A travel book that I can warmly recommend.’                                       (Daily Mail)

maurice richardson:   ‘A very good book indeed.’

(New Statesman)