Red Nile
Subtitle: a biography of the world's greatest river
By: Robert Twigger
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; Orion Publishing Group, Limited
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 466
ISBN-13: 9780297866497; 9780297866503
Subjects: Nile River; Travel; Nile River - History; Twigger, Robert, 1964- - Travel - Nile River; History
Description: "So much begins on the banks of the Nile: all religion, all life, all stories, the script we write in, the language we speak, the gods, the legends and the names of stars. This mighty river that flows through a quarter of all Africa has been history's greatest and most sustained creator. In this dazzling, idiosyncratic journey from ancient times to the Arab Spring, Robert Twigger weaves a Nile narrative like no other. Along the way we meet crocodiles and caliphs, nineteenth-century adventurers and twentieth-century novelists, biblical prophets and classical lovers, dam-builders and crusaders. As he navigates a meandering course through the history of the world's greatest river, he plucks the most intriguing, colourful and dramatic stories - truly a Nile red in tooth and claw. The result is both an epic journey through the whole sweep of human and pre-human history, and an intimate biography of the curious life of this great river, overflowing with stories of excess, love, passion, splendour and violence."--Cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 451-453) and index.
Table of contents: title: Natural Nile : famine, pestilence and a severed penis; title: River of the believers : madness and mystics; title: The Nile extended : raw steak and Napoleon; title: The Nile damned : elephants, exploration and Agatha Christie's trunk; title: Blood on the Nile : from assassination to revolution.