A Guide to the Birds of East Africa by Nicholas Drayson: book review

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa (2008) is a fictional novel set in Nairobi, Kenya, in contemporary times.

The back-cover promotion says this novel is like Alexander McCall Smith’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency book series set in Botswana. But Drayson’s book is not a detective book, nor a mystery, nor does it have predominantly African female characters. It does, however, have lots of East African birds.

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa has three main characters in their 60s – two males and a female – who have full lives with frequent travel, previous spouses, jobs, friends, interests, and hobbies; one of which is bird watching.

Mr Malik has attended the weekly Tuesday bird walk of the East African Ornithological Society in Nairobi for the past three years, and is passionately in love with the leader of the group, Rose Mbikwa. But one day his school boy rival, Harry Khan, turns up on the bird walk. Now their rivalry centres on gaining Rose’s attention.

Both men want to invite Rose to the Nairobi Hunt Club Ball, the annual dance. To determine who should invite Rose, Mr Malik and Harry Khan begin a seven-day challenge. Their friends at the Asadi Club act as referees.

The challenge is to spot and identify the highest number of birds within Kenya. What could be easier in Kenya, a land with an exceptionally high number of bird species?

But the challenge has rules – ten strict rules. One of the rules is that there must be no contact with Rose for the whole week – whatsoever – not ‘personal, telephonic or epistolary, nor through any third person nor by any other means.’ Rose is a little confused by their sudden lack of attention.

It’s amazing what two men will do to win the challenge; and who comes to their assistance – friends, family, workers, and strangers. There are other challenges too, such as theft, shootings, and misunderstandings.

This is an easy-to-read, delightful, comical, interesting story that rolls along, or rather rolls around, with a few digressions and stops and starts, until eventually one winner is revealed. More or less. Not only is the winner revealed, but their real personalities also come to surface.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).