Giles Foden Books In Order

Novels

  1. The Last King of Scotland (1998)
  2. Ladysmith (1999)
  3. Zanzibar (2002)
  4. Turbulence (2009)
  5. Freight Dogs (2020)

Collections

  1. Ox-Tales:Water (2009)

Non fiction

  1. Mimi and Toutou Go Forth (2004)

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Giles Foden Books Overview

The Last King of Scotland

Nicholas Garrigan has fled his native Scotland, and his parents’ expectations, to take a position as a doctor in a remote rural outpost of Central Africa. Shortly after his arrival in Uganda, he is called to the scene of a bizarre car accident: Idi Amin, manically driving his red Maserati down the dirt tracks of Garrigan’s small village, has run over a cow. Garrigan binds Amin’s sprained wrist and puts the incident behind him, until a letter arrives from the Minister of Health informing him that Amin in his obsession with all things Scottish has ap pointed Garrigan his personal physician. Garrigan is instructed to settle into State House, on the grounds of Amin’s residence, immediately. Later, Garrigan will reflect that had he known what awaited him, had he foreseen the terrifying concatenation of events this decision would set in motion, he would have boarded the first plane back to Scotland. He will wonder why it never occurred to him to simply say no. But flattered, disarmed, and intrigued, if uneasily, by the pros pect of entering Amin’s inner circle he steps into the role of caring for the man who will turn out to be one of the most brutal dictators of all time. So begins Nick Garrigan’s journey into a Con radian heart of darkness, as his own moral centerbattles weakly against, and then succumbs to, the dark and irresistible seductions of Idi Amin Dada, whose cruelty and cunning are masked by brilliant rhetoric, hilarious wit, and electrifying personal magnetism. When at last Nick awakens to the horrors of Amin’s regime, he must awaken also to his own complicity in it he cared for Amin, as a doctor and as a friend and to the knowledge that he is both a traitor to his own country and a prisoner in his new one. By turns comic and chilling, Giles Foden’s The Last King of Scotland is a masterful debut from a remarkable talent a riveting history of ‘blood, misery and foolishness’ that lingers in the mind long after the last page is turned, and a profound meditation on conscience, charisma, and the slow corruption of the human heart.

Ladysmith

From the author of the Whitbread Award winning The Last King of Scotland comes a spellbinding tale of a town under siege in colonial Africa and a young woman who finds love and freedom in the midst of a devastating war. The year is 1899, and the South African town of Ladysmith is surrounded by Boer forces. No one expects the siege to last, but it does, for a harrowing 120 days four months of dire emergency: food shortages during which bread is made with laundry detergent and the soldiers’ horses are killed to feed the troops; bombings that force the townspeople into tunnels and makeshift shelters. But in the thick of shells and shrapnel, disease and deprivation, one young woman discovers an unexpected freedom: a chance to break old loyalties and establish new loves. Even as the world she knows collapses around her, Bella Kiernan finds the courage to escape from convention, to rebel against the political forces that threaten her homeland and to pursue her life’s greatest romance. Based in part on the letters of Foden’s great grandfather, a British trooper, Ladysmith is a magnificent love story, a vivid portrait of the first modern war of the twentieth century and clear confirmation of Giles Foden’s standing as one of Britain’s most formidably talented young novelists.

Zanzibar

The year is 1998. Nick Karolides is a marine biologist working on coral reef protection off Zanzibar the East African island of slaves, sultans and spices. Soon he meets Miranda Powers, an American who works in the US embassy in nearby Dar es Salaam. Nick and Miranda find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy of violence and political terror, one with which CIA veteran Jack Queller has an ancient connection. Zanzibar is both an investigation of the idea of paradise and a powerfully dramatic political thriller, it features Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda organisation long before ‘September 11’ made them notorious.

Turbulence

From the highly acclaimed and prizewinning author of The Last King of Scotland Clever, and fluently written Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times: a heart stopping race against time as British and American scientists attempt the impossible to get millions of Allied troops secretly across the English Channel for D day. As the plans for the invasion of Normandy take shape, the fate of 2.5 million men and the future of Europe come to depend on the right weather conditions over the channel on a single day. A team of Allied scientists is charged with agreeing on an accurate forecast five days in advance. But is it even possible to predict the weather so far ahead? And what is the relationship between predictability and Turbulence, one of the last great mysteries of modern physics?Wallace Ryman, a reclusive pacifist, has devised a system that comprehends all of this. Henry Meadows, a young prodigy, is sent to Scotland to discover Ryman’s system and apply it to the Normandy landings. But Turbulence proves more elusive than anyone has imagined, and, like the weather, events begin to spiral out of control.A gripping blend of fact and fiction in a novel about how human beings perceive and ultimately cope with uncertainty.

Mimi and Toutou Go Forth

The Whitbread Award winning author of The Last King of Scotland brings his extensive knowledge of Africa to his first work of nonfiction: the incredible true story that inspired the classic film The African Queen.

When the First World War breaks out, the British navy is committed to engaging the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship even if the body of water in question is a remote African lake and the enemy an intimidating fleet of German steamers. The leader of this improbable mission is Geoffrey Spicer Simson, the oldest lieutenant commander in the navy, whose career thus far had been distinguished by two sinkings. His seemingly impossible charge: to trek overland through the African bush hauling Mimi and Toutou two forty foot mahogany gunboats and defeat the Germans on Lake Tanganyika. Spicer Simson sets forth on a lunatic 2,800 mile journey with a band of cantankerous, insubordinate Scotsmen, Irishmen and Englishmen. After going into battle wearing a skirt and becoming the god of an African tribe by showing them his tattoos, he is acclaimed a hero. But the truth about the battle is somewhat more complex.

With its powerfully evoked landscape, cast of hilariously colorful characters and remarkable story of hubris, ingenuity and perseverance, Mimi and Toutou’s Big Adventure is history at its most entertaining and absorbing.

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