African Deadlines: 22 Years in the Long Grass of Central Africa Without a Break

by Michael Holman

Michael Holman does not interview African Leaders. They interview him. They recognize in him the rarest kind of lover of one who feels its misfortunes but is not blinded by sympathy; one who condemns its barbarism without branding it barbaric; one who believes in a continent which has lost faith in itself.

You will also see other sides to the personality which is Holman of Africa; the master psychologist and manipulator of men (and women); the evil schemer, whose mischievous pranks make him often seem more boy than man; the subtle humorist whose irony somehow manages to avoid cynicism.

Patti Waldmeri, FT Bureau Chief.
Johannesburg 1989 -1994.

300 pages, Hardcover

First published December 20, 1995

About the author

Michael Holman is a British journalist and writer. He was the Africa Editor of the Financial Times from 1984 to 2002 and has written several novels and an autobiography.
He was born in Penzance, Cornwall, but his parents emigrated to Southern Rhodesia when he was two. He was educated at Chaplin High School and studied English at University College of Rhodesia where he was awarded a BA in 1968.
Holman was the co-editor of Black & White, a satirical magazine. The publication was banned by the Rhodesian government and he was arrested in August 1968 and restricted to his home town of Gwelo under the Law & Order (Maintenance) Act. In August 1969 the order was extended for a further year.
He was granted an exit permit to attend the University of Edinburgh and was awarded an MSc in Politics in 1971. From 1972 he worked as a freelance journalist based in London. In 1977 he was appointed Africa correspondent for the Financial Times, based in Lusaka, Zambia and in 1984 he was promoted to Africa Editor.
In his late 30s, Holman was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and has written on the experience of undergoing deep brain simulation surgery.