Mimi and Toutou Go Forth by Giles Foden: book review

Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika (2004) is about German East Africa in 1915 during Europe’s scramble for African colonization. German East Africa is now Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi.

In 1914, ‘’the Belgians … had a chance to attack German East Africa – if only they could cross Lake Tanganyika.’’ By 1915, the British decided to mount an attack to claim the land adjacent to their British East Africa (now Kenya and Uganda).

So while Winston Churchill was facing the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey, Geoffrey Basil Spicer-Simson, was commanded to lead the attack on German East Africa. Spicer (1876-1947) was born in Tasmania, Australia, and served in the British navy. He was described as ‘’peculiar’’ or ‘’downright dangerous’’ and he spoke in a ‘’curious manner.’’ This book is about the battle of Lake Tanganyika and whether Spicer was a hero or a lunatic.

His two gunboats were called HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou, and they sailed for 67 days from Great Britain to the coast of Africa, and then inland from Dar es Salaam to Lake Tanganyika to attack the German boats – in a land known for its ‘’tropical jungle, savanna bush, formidable mountains … blighted by malaria, the tsetse fly … and a thousand amoebic horrors that made a home of the human gut.’’ And also the jigger flea, the spirillum tick, the white ant, the scorpion, the poisonous spider, the wild bee, the warrior ant, the lion, and the rhinoceros.

On the first day in Lake Tanganyika Mimi and Toutou covered a distance of five miles, having hit sandbanks fourteen times. But they still had to prepare for battle. Spicer didn’t know that the German supership, the Graf von Gotzen was also in the lake – over five times the size of his little gunboats.

Spicer’s flamboyancy and idiosyncracies are well described, from the wearing of skirts in the tropical heat (he designed them and his wife made them) to his preference for monogrammed cigarettes. Spicer’s antics are reminiscent of another famous Tasmanian: the swashbuckling actor Errol Flynn.

Spicer’s battle was loosely immortalised in the C.S. Forester novel, The African Queen (1935), and movie produced by John Huston, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. Huston said he and Bogart escaped illnesses ‘’by always drinking Scotch with their water; Hepburn says they just drank Scotch.’’

Courtmartialled for wrecking his own ships, but also with multiple medals, was Spicer a foolhardy hero or a complete idiot? Was he a coward, a braggart, compulsive liar, or a fantasist? This is a humorously historical account of the Battle of Lake Tanganyika, and the man Lt. Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson, in all its incredible and unorthodox detail. A great tale, and true.

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).

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...

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