Venture To The Interior

Summoned to Whitehall in 1949, Laurens van der Post was told that in old British Central Africa there were two large tracts of country that London didn't really know anything about, and could he go in there on foot and take a look, please? Venture to the Interior is the account of that journey, a journey filled with adventure and discovery, flying from London across Europe and Africa, and after days in small aircraft, on foot across the mountains to the two lost worlds of central Africa.

About the Author :
Laurens van der Post was born in Africa in 1906, the thirteenth of fifteen children in a family of Dutch and French Huguenot origins. Most of his adult life was spent his time divided between Africa and England. His professions of writer and farmer were interrupted by ten years of soldiering in the British Army, serving with distinction in the Western Desert, Abyssinia, Burma and the Far East. Taken prisoner by the Japanese, he was held in captivity for three years before returning to active service as a member of Lord Mountbatten's staff in Indonesia and, later, as Military Attache to the British Minister in Java. After 1949 he undertook several official missions exploring little-known parts of Africa, and his journey in search of the Bushmen in 1957 formed the basis of his famous documentary film and The Lost World of the Kalahari. Other television films include All Africa Within Us and The Story of Carl Gustav Jung, whom he met after the war and grew to know as a personal friend. In 1934 he wrote In a Provice, the first book by a South African to expose the horrors of racism. Other books include Venture to the Interior (1952), The Heart of the Hunter (1961), and A Walk with a White Bushman (1986). The Seed and the Sower was made into a film under the title Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence, and, more recently, A Story Like the Wind and A Far-Off Place were combined and made into the film A Far-Off Place. Sir Laurens van der Post was awarded the CBE in 1947 and received his knighthood in 1981. He died in 1996.

Review :
An outstanding book... I rank Laurens van der Post with the best writers of English... This book confirms my constant admiration and the nobility of his mind -- Raymond Mortimer Sunday Times I hope all those who are appalled by the destruction of Hiroshima will read this book-for a greater understanding of what man is capable of doing to his fellows in time of war Daily Telegraph No one can write more feelingly of Africa-an experience not to be missed Evening Standard One of the noblest books of travel written in our time, and one destined, I imagine, to have a permanent place in English literature -- Howard Spring Inspired... Some of the poetic descriptions of the scenery are most beautiful and fill me with envy. The book is magnificent -- Stephen Spender