Love and Lunacy at Kudu: a very British romantic comedy novel set in Africa

by Daniel Edmondson

For those unfamiliar with the brilliant work of Daniel Edmondson, an introduction is as necessary as it is impossible. With a taste for a very particular brand of surreal humour, he weaves a quintessentially British thread through his tales of "Kudu" – a remote, flea-ridden outpost in 1930’s British Central Africa, which is home to an array of characters so colourful, you’ll wonder where the rainbow ends and the book begins!

In this ever-popular follow-up to bestseller "Blue Murder at Kudu", the town’s District Commissioner - an archetypal English eccentric - becomes embroiled in a feud with Boaz Bruch, owner of the town's only Emporium, who turns out to have an old lease giving him ownership of the town's main street. Chaos results, with the upshot being that to placate BB, the colonial government propose that the new Governor of the Territory pay an official visit to the town, to invest Bruch personally with the MBE.

Meanwhile, Nkanga'besa - the local witchdoctor - decides to pay off some old scores, the result being that in the midst of the ceremony, the Governor vanishes in an unseasonable swarm of locusts. Dr Wallace, the Provincial Medical Officer, is then asked to treat the Governor's lady for a nasty insect bite, and discovers to his shock that she is the love of his life, and that neither of them have gotten over the break-up!

Through it all, Kudu's District Commissioner ploughs on, demonstrating that there is no crisis he cannot make worse…

331 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 6, 2012

Reviews

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amusing romp in the dark continent's colonial era