Fiction_L Archives Post-World War II Africa Dates: 2/22/02,12:00 PM  through  2/22/02,6:02 PM  (3 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to February 2002 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: Victoria Swadley <[removed]@rbrl.lib.mo.us>
REC'D: 2/22/02, 12:00 PM

Hi Fiction-L'ers!

One of our library assistants has a customer who is looking for a book she
read several years ago and she does not remember the title or author. What
she does remember is this: It is fiction, set in Africa, post-World War II,
one of the characters is a dwarf or midget, and the setting involves a
hotel. This an older title, but the customer is not sure how old. The theme
of the book may involve the settling of Africa.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks for the assist,

Victoria Swadley
Deputy Director for Public Services
River Bluffs Regional Library
[removed]@rbrl.lib.mo.us

FROM: Molly Williams <[removed]@adelphia.net>
REC'D: 2/22/02, 1:14 PM

The White Rhino Hotel
by Bartle Bull
First fiction, set at the end of WW I, in which a frontier Kenyan
hotel provides rest, shelter, and large drinks to a fugitive Gypsy,
wounded Tommies, murderous Irishmen, scheming Portuguese colonials,
displaced Germans, an American cowboy, and a pretty Welsh woman.
Bull's nonfiction Safari (1988) covered some of the same geography.
Having sold the bulk of his British estate and mismanaged his
plantation ventures, Adam Penfold finds that his fortune has
dwindled to the White Rhino, a hotel in the Kenyan highlands. Lord
Penfold and his oppressively horsy lady Sissy preside over the
place, leaving management to their major-domo Olivio, a dwarf whose
spying and sexual skills are state of the art. As there is much to
spy out and many itches to scratch, Olivio is a very busy man. The
end of the war has brought a new wave of settlers to the colony,
hopeful men and women who are about to find out that the rich Kenyan
soils are very choosy about what crops they'll support and that the
old Kenyan colonials can be as treacherous as the worst villains in
Europe. Anton Rider, with his gypsy skills and restless
intelligence, is one of the few immigrants truly suited to the whims
of Africa. Dashing Anton has become smitten with Gwenn Llewellyn,
who has joined her badly crippled husband to carve out a new life
and who has already made a couple of very dangerous enemies in a
pair of violent Irish brothers. Adam and Gwenn are made for each
other, but before they sort things out, there are swamps to ford,
savannahs to cross, dalliances to be enjoyed, pythons to wrestle,
elephants to cook, and legal business to sort out. Very nicely done.
Bull has sensibly resisted the temptation to turn his racy African
adventures into a sweeping, gabby epic, so everything moves at a
cracking pace. Much ground is covered, but since the time is short,
the stories are well contained. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus
Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the
Hardcover edition.

Followed by A Cafe on the Nile by Bartle Bull (thriller set in
Pre-WWII Cairo, East Africa, at the Cataract Cafe, a floating
version of Rick's, also with Olivio, DWARF from Goa)

~ Molly Wms.
--
Molly Williams
Volunteer, Waterboro Public Library (Maine)
daily library weblog: http://www.waterboro.lib.me.us/blog.htm

Victoria Swadley wrote:

> Hi Fiction-L'ers!
>
> One of our library assistants has a customer who is looking for a book she
> read several years ago and she does not remember the title or author. What
> she does remember is this: It is fiction, set in Africa, post-World War II,
> one of the characters is a dwarf or midget, and the setting involves a
> hotel. This an older title, but the customer is not sure how old. The theme
> of the book may involve the settling of Africa.
>
> Does this sound familiar to anyone?
>
> Thanks for the assist,
>
> Victoria Swadley
> Deputy Director for Public Services
> River Bluffs Regional Library
> [removed]@rbrl.lib.mo.us
>
> ......................................................................
> Need to subscribe, unsubscribe, search the archives?
> Everything Fiction_L: http://www.webrary.org/rs/flmenu.html
>
>

FROM: Victoria Swadley <[removed]@rbrl.lib.mo.us>
REC'D: 2/22/02, 6:02 PM

Thanks so much, Molly, for the quick answer to my customer's query on the
post-world war II book set in Africa. You were right on the money, and the
customer was ecstatic! The book she was looking for was indeed The White
Rhino Hotel by Bartle Bull.

I love this listserv and the outstanding folks on it!

Victoria Swadley
Deputy Director for Public Services
River Bluffs Regional Library
[removed]@rbrl.lib.mo.us

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