Description

“The only reason why I wrote Abyssinian Adventure,” the young author states in his introduction, “was tosatisfy the host of questioners who besieged me withsilly if polite inquiries like, ‘Do tell me about Abyssinia ? Are they really savages’ And so on. On my return from those remote regions I found that I had suddenly become an interesting person. I was asked out to lunch and dinner and for week-ends by people I had never heard of, and who had never heard of me, till my dispatches started to appear in the Daily Mail. Even my own friends became tiresomelyfriendly. Special Correspondents about to go out there themselves asked me for my advice, rival editors offered me tempting sums to chronicle my adventures,art dealers invited me to inspect their Abyssinianantiques.”

Abyssinian Adventure is one of the most unusual travel books ever written. Geoffrey Harmsworth had the unique privilege of being the only journalist allowed by Mussolini to visit the Italian Colonies in East Africa, of which practically nothing is known in this country. From Eritrea and Somaliland he proceeded to Abyssinia. There he met the Emperor and the leading officials of that strange feudal Empire whose fate rests so delicately in the balance to-day. There is something of the Northcliffe touch in the way this Harmsworth of the second generation records his encounters and impressions. Although, as he says, “not nearly enough is written by authors about the boredom of travel” there are no boring moments in this, his first book. The story unfolds with the lively rhythm of a Cochran Revue, and a gay harlequinade, of prophets, priests, and kings, of rogues and saints and vagabonds, flickers across the pages of this exciting book. And although Abyssinian Adventure has its lighter side it is easily the most important contribution to a better understanding of the Italo-Abyssinian situation that has yet appeared.

Source: revers de jaquette

‘ A well balanced, impartial and interesting account of the situation.”—The Times.

^uMr Harmsworth has a lively and honest mind.”—Daily Telegraph.

” Full of great topical interest.”—Morning Post.

” Few travellers in any country have provided a more captivating record of personal experience. —Daily Mail.

” Amusing and instructive.”—Daily Mirror.

” A very entertaining book.”—Evening News.

” He has made a most readable book of it all.”—Howard Spring in Evening Standard.

‘” Nothing of the kind could be more agreeably done nor with a more attractive mingling of earnestness and vivacity.”—Observer.

” The Abyssinian scene unfolds until the picture is alive and complete.”—Sunday Dispatch.

” One of the best travel books of the year.”—Sunday Referee.

” Its revelation of the Northcliffe genius for vivid detail is almost uncanny.”— Beverley Nichols in Western Morning News.

” Thoroughly interesting from start to finish.”—Nottingham Guardian.

” He knows how to win and hold the interest of his readers.”—Sheffield Telegraph.

” An extremely valuable, informative and engrossing book.”—Midland Daily Telegraph.

” I found it as fascinating as any novel.”—Liverpool Echo.

” The whole adventure is related with gusto and a sense of humour.”—Scotsman.

” His book must be about as pleasing to the Daily Mail as a banana skin to the man who falls on it.”—New Statesman and Nation.

” There is something fresh and impetuous about the author’s mind which compels interest and sweeps one along through the account of his journeys and boredoms and successes.”—Sphere.

” It stands out head and shoulders above all other books on the subject.”—The Queen.

” A very remarkable record of enterprise, endurance, danger, privation, boredom, pluck and success.”—Eric Parker in The Field.

” An enjoyable and informative travel book.”—Time and Tide.

” The book is lively as befits a young author and full of sound information as befits an older one.”—Times Literary Supplement.

” Mr. Harmsworth’s book is distinguished by an artist’s sense of a great scene.” —Western Sunday Independent.

^;cHis values are rather obscured by the aggressiveness of his youth.”-—Sunday Mercury.

” The author has that gift of the true journalist of making everything interesting as well as instructive.”—Bristol Evening Post.

” One can understand the War and its tactics much better after studying ‘Abyssinian Adventure’.”—Glasgow Citizen.         _v

” Read this book.   It’s hotly topical and it’s good journalism,”—Worlds Press News.

” Triumphantly confirms the high opinion that had already been formed of Mr. Geoffrey Harmsworth as a journalist.”—Newspaper World.

Source: flyer