The Zanzibar Chest: A Memoir of Love and War

The Zanzibar Chest: A Memoir of Love and War
Aidan Hartley

A deeply affecting memoir of a childhood in Africa and the continent's horrendous wars, which Hartley witnessed at first hand as a journalist in the 1990s. Shortlisted for the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction, this is a masterpiece of autobiographical journalism.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.‘The Zanzibar Chest’ is a powerful story about a man witnessing and confronting extreme violence and being broken down by it, and of a son trying to come to terms with the death of a father whom he also saw as his best friend. It charts not only a love affair between two people, but also the British love affair with Arabia and the vast emptinesses of the desert, which become a fitting metaphor for the emotional and spiritual condition in which Hartley finds himself.

The Zanzibar Chest: A Memoir of Love and War

Aidan Hartley

Copyright (#ulink_06b0e21b-2c0a-5cd9-9110-d1f00538a6d0)

Harper Perennial

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

This edition published by Harper Perennial 2004

First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2003

Copyright © Aidan Hartley 2003

PS section copyright © Johnathan Clayton 2004

Photo credits: All chapter frontispiece photos courtesy of the Hartley family collection except: ‘Feeding the Beast’ frontispiece photo by Jim Hollander; ‘The Sound of Freedom in the Air’ frontispiece photo by Sam Ouma, courtesy Reuters; ‘Lazarus’ frontispiece photo by Aidan Hartley, courtesy Reuters; ‘Herograms’ frontispiece photo by Judy Walgren.

Lyrics from ‘I Whistle a Happy Tune’ by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Copyright © 1951 by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Copyright Renewed. WILLIAMSON MUSIC owner of publication and allied rights throughout the World. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission.

Aidan Hartley asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN 978000651210

Ebook Edition © APRIL 2010 ISBN: 9780007380268

Version: 2014–09–08

Dedication (#ua716366a-4198-5554-a688-8ce71732f4aa)

To my wife and my mother

Epigraph (#ua716366a-4198-5554-a688-8ce71732f4aa)

From time to time, God causes men to be born – and thou art one of them – who have a lust to go abroad at the risk of their lives and discover news – today it may be of far-off things, tomorrow of some hidden mountain, and the next day of some near-by men who have done a foolishness against the State. These souls are very few; and of these few, not more than ten are of the best.

Rudyard Kipling, Kim

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u4d88c2c4-7abe-5f55-ab54-1a9c2ea6d4c2)

Title Page (#u2244d341-3e54-5c2f-86d6-0b36aebe20a5)

Copyright (#u178ef255-8b64-5980-a390-3fbee722c16c)

Dedication (#u2e2f7b69-126f-582d-8cc9-a37ab0b8ed5d)

Epigraph (#u5b3db822-34bf-5a10-85b5-1091ef5d34a8)

Beyond the Rivers of Ethiopia (#u5e4f9bd2-9b71-5e64-b1f9-416e20023fca)

Take Me Home to Mama (#ude3f8dcf-7721-56a9-ae1f-d31b89973fad)

Journalist Plus Plus (#ufb27dae8-b92a-5440-b5e4-11d5dca68d10)

The Zanzibar Chest (#litres_trial_promo)

Feeding the Beast (#litres_trial_promo)

Going Native (#litres_trial_promo)

The Sound of Freedom in the Air (#litres_trial_promo)

Empty Quarter (#litres_trial_promo)

Lazarus (#litres_trial_promo)

One Moment, of the Well of Life to Taste (#litres_trial_promo)

Herograms (#litres_trial_promo)

Postscript (#litres_trial_promo)

P.S. Ideas, interviews & features… (#litres_trial_promo)

About the author (#litres_trial_promo)

Profile of Aidan Hartley (#litres_trial_promo)

SNAPSHOT (#litres_trial_promo)

Top Twenty Favourite Reads (#litres_trial_promo)

About the book (#litres_trial_promo)