Hartley has been to all the worst places and seen the worst horrors, he’s excellent with facts, and he wants to know whether history has not played a huge joke on colonizers and colonized alike.”— National Geographic Adventure The value and significance of dowry items have varied greatly, from the sheets and household linen in the bottom drawer traditional in the uk to the “hope chests” of North America, to elaborate trousseaux of jewels, embroidery and weavings intended to show off the family’s wealth or the young woman’s skill.

Estimates: Hannam’s Auctioneers Ltd makes no warranty as to the anticipated selling price of property. Estimates are offered only as a guide and not a statement of fact.Mesmerizing. . . . A Sweeping, poetic homage to Africa, a continent made vivid by Hartley’s capable, stunning prose.”— Publishers Weekly (starred review) Aidan Hartley, a foreign correspondent, burned-out from the horror of covering the terrifying micro wars of the 1990s, from Rwanda to Bosnia, seeks solace and solitude in the remote mountains and deserts of southern Arabia and the Yemen, following his father’s death. While there, he finds himself on the trail of the tragic story of an old friend of his father’s, who fell in love and was murdered in southern Arabia fifty years ago. As the terrible events of the past unfold, Hartley finds his own kind of deliverance. In between Hartley's experiences, there is a separate story regarding his father's friend, Peter Davey and Davey's murder in 1947. Hartley wanted to tell this story because he inherited Davey's diaries, which his father stored for 50 years in "The Zanzibar Chest." However, I did not feel Davey's story was nearly as compelling as Hartley's, and it didn't really belong in this volume. In his quest for belonging, Hartley intertwines his own war stories with the tale of Peter Davey, a romantic young British officer and friend of his father, who was murdered in Aden in 1947 and whose diaries he finds in his dead father's Zanzibar chest. There are similarities between Davey and Hartley, two white men in savage lands. But Hartley strives for a more poetic connection. He believes Davey's death represented his father's loss of innocence, just as he himself was transformed by Africa's wars. By uncovering the details of Davey's life, he hopes to connect with his father, and so with his forefathers.

La sua famiglia ha alle spalle due secoli di storia coloniale in tutti i continenti, fra i suoi avi ci sono militari, funzionari pubblici, tecnici che hanno vissuto e lavorato in Africa, in Asia, nei Caraibi ecc. Third Party Liability. Every person on Lots Road Auction's premises at any time shall be deemed to be there at his own risk. He shall have no claim against Lots Road Auctions in respect of any accident which may occur or injury, damage or loss howsoever caused, save in so far as the injury, damage or loss shall be caused by the direct negligence of Lots Road Auction's employees. A demonstration of how the personal can be put to good use in journalism . . . the book is fascinating.”—Wilson Wanene, Nieman ReportsAt least I get to do what they taught me in the foreign service and have drinks with a room full of mass murderers." The author was a foreign correspondent in the early 1990's in Ethiopia, Somalia, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, the Balkans, and probably other countries that I can't recall. Hartley turned 30 in 1995. He was born in Kenya and raised in England and returned to Africa after Oxford, which makes his life fascinating just with those facts alone.