num_pages: 336
description: A few years ago, Owen Sheers stumbled upon a dusty book in his father's study by the extraordinary Arthur Cripps, part-time lyric poet and full-time unorthodox missionary who served in Rhodesia for fifty years from 1902. Sheers' discovery prompts a quest into colonial Africa at the turn of the century, by way of war, a doomed love affair and friction with the ruling authorities. His personal journey into the contemporary heart of darkness that is Mugabe's Zimbabwe finds more than Cripps' legacy - Sheers finds a land characterised by terror and fear, and blighted by the land reform policies that Cripps himself anticipated.
language: English
title: The Dust Diaries
titlecomplete: The Dust Diaries
genres: Biography, Zimbabwe, Nonfiction, Travel, History, Africa
ratings_count: 137
awards: awardedAt: 1104566400000
name: Wales Book of the Year
publisher: Faber & Faber