“Explorers of the Nile is a brilliant, scholarly and at times almost unreadably vivid account of the two decades in the middle of the 19th century when the search for the Nile’s source in central Africa was at its height.”—Ben Macintyre, New York Times Book Review
(Ben Macintyre
New York Times Book Review )
"Elegantly written and skillfully crafted...The greatest strengths of this highly enjoyable and readable book are Jeal’s passion for his subject and his mastery of personalities as complex as the geography they battled to understand."—Diane Preston, Washington Post
(Diane Preston
Washington Post )
"Superb narrative . . . Jeal’s judicious account is a must-read for anyone hoping to understand the internal dynamics of modern state-building in central Africa."—Brian Odom, Booklist
(Brian Odom
Booklist )
"Masterly...One of the fascinations of Jeal's book and his account of this astonishing period of exploration is that it makes great efforts to strip away the accumulated myths and through this process we can begin to see these 'heroic' figures plain, to imagine them as they were to their contemporaries."—William Boyd, TLS
(William Boyd
TLS )
"Tim Jeal's masterly book ... can safely supplant Alan Moorehead's 1960 classic, The White Nile... Jeal also knows how to tell a fabulous story, and he lets old-fashioned epic adventure sit at the heart of his fine book." —James McConnachie, Sunday Times
(James McConnachie
Sunday Times )
"[A] wonderfully entertaining and authoritative account of the search for the Nile and its consequences."—John Preston, Sunday Telegraph
(John Preston
Sunday Telegraph )
Runner-up for the 2011-2012 Los Angeles Book Festival in the General Non-fiction category
(General Non-Fiction Award Runner-up
Los Angeles Book Festival )
"There are few greater stories than the race to the Nile's source... Tim Jeal gives a fine reprise, bringing together in one well-paced narrative the interlocking Nilotic adventures ... Its place [is] alongside the classics of Victorian explorer history."—Tim Butcher, Daily Telegraph
(Tim Butcher
Daily Telegraph )
"If there is one book about the search for the sources of the Nile to read and keep on the shelf, this is it."—Tim Severin, Irish Examiner
(Tim Severin
Irish Examiner )
"Epic in proportion...An absorbing adventure and a thought provoking morality tale."—Peter Burton, Daily Express
(Peter Burton
Daily Express )
"Tim Jeal's gripping book pulls the whole astonishing story together. . . . It's as intricate and unexpected as the source of the river itself. . . All the main players were. . . examples of grit, resourcefulness and courage on a heroic scale. . . . How intimately Tim Jeal knows them all, and brings them back to life for us."—Tom Stacey, The Spectator
(Tom Stacey
The Spectator )
"Jeal's lengthy, comprehensive, and revisionist book is exciting reading both about the adventures in the field and about the clash of personalities."—Rob Hardy,
The Dispatch (Rob Hardy
The Dispatch )
"Tim Jeal's wonderful book is filled with anecdotes and brilliant cameos, which keep the narrative fresh and sparklingly alive. His treatment of these legendary figures is authoritative and compassionate."—Alexander Maitland, Literary Review
(Alexander Maitland
Literary Review )
"Splendid."—Bernard Porter, Guardian
(
Guardian )
Won Honorable Mention in the 2012 New York Book Festival History category, sponsored by the New York Book Festival
(History Honorable Mention
New York Book Festival 20120612)
Praise for Tim Jeal’s Stanley, winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography
"A magnificent new life. . . . There have been many biographies of Stanley, but Jeal's is the most felicitous, the best informed, the most complete and readable and exhaustive, profiting from his access to an immense new trove of Stanley material."—Paul Theroux, front page, New York Times Book Review
"[An] impressive, revealing, and well written biography. . . . Tim Jeal has had both the good fortune to see [Stanley's] papers and the skill to construct a new interpretation around them. He recognizes Stanley's feats and views them in the context of his age rather than ours. Moreover, he adds new layers to his subject's character."—David Gilmour, New York Review of Books
"[T]his commanding, definitive biography . . . is an unalloyed triumph."—Jason Roberts, Washington Post Book World
“Sympathetic yet balanced, perceptive and full of perspective, this is biography at its best.”—Ross Leckie, The Times London
Named one of the 100 Notable Books of 2007 by the New York Times Book Review
Selected as one of the best books of 2008 by the Washington Post
Nominated for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography
