Ian Mathie: 4 books

Sent to the tropical jungle of central Africa to teach villagers how to get clean drinking water, Ian Mathie lived for some time in a village deep in the forest. The village elders and witch doctor, together with the local political agent, persuaded him to foster Abélé, an orphan from the community...

Drought is a natural disaster; starvation is a man-made tragedy. Preventing the first can go a long way to alleviating the second, but not without the political will, as Ian Mathie makes clear in this gripping memoir of the 1974 humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia. Dust of the Danakil is a true story...

An uninvited 'ferret' from Whitehall, dark deeds in the 'heart of darkness', escape from bloody terror and black magic - a true story that shocks the sensibilities and staggers the imagination... West Africa is the setting for Man in a Mud Hut, an intriguing story of witchcraft, wizardry, water resources...

West Africa in the 1970s: volatile years immediately following independence brought the author in contact with a number of Presidents, five Kings, two Emperors, dozens of village and tribal chiefs and a succession of extraordinary people. Circumstances contrived to place him at dinner with four heads...