FEAST OR FAMINE

Mount Kenya   is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second highest mountain in Africa, after Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Mount Kenya in central Kenya, about 16 kilometres (10 miles) south of the Equator and 150 kilometres (93 miles) north of the capital Nairobi, is 5,199 metres tall (17,057 feet), while Mt Kilimanjaro is 5,895 metres (19,341 feet) tall. The strato-volcanic mountain was originally higher than Mt Kilimanjaro. Mount Kenya has three distinct peaks: Batian, Nelion, and Point Lenana,   with eleven small glaciers. An area around the centre of the mountain is designated a National Park and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. 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 Suda...

The   African Pygmy Falcon ( Polihierax semitorquatus ) is the smallest raptor in Africa. It lives in eastern and southern Africa. It is only 20 centimetres (8 inches) tall. It is a grey and white bird of prey, with a red eye ring and pink legs. It has short, rounded wings. The   African Pygmy Falcon likes dry lands with lots of thorn bushes and plains with few trees. It eats lizards, insects, small birds, and rodents, such as rats . It usually takes over the nest of weaver birds instead of building its own nest.  Females lay 2-3 eggs and raise their chicks together with the male. 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).

Dance of the Jakaranda (2017) is set in Kenya in 1963, the year of the country’s independence from Britain. The story goes back to 1886 as construction commences on The Uganda Railway, built by the British, to connect Uganda to the sea port of Mombasa in Kenya. In 1893 construction began on the Mombasa to Nairobi rail line that transformed the nation. It was the construction of the railway that brought Reverend Richard Turnbull and Ian McDonald from Britain to Kenya (known then as the British East Africa Protectorate). It was also the railway that brought Babu Rajan Salim from India to the foreign land. McDonald, the colonial administrator, built a home in 1902, and in 1963 it was the Jakaranda Hotel. Babu became a technician, and the Reverend began an adoption campaign for abandonned babies. Over the years, Ian, Richard, and Babu’s lives were as separate as the tracks of the railway. Ian, Richard, and Babu’s lives intersect when they are all implicated in the co...

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).