Aidan Hartley – författare

A deeply affecting memoir of a childhood in Africa and the continent's horrendous wars, which Hartley witnessed at first hand as a journalist in the 1990s. Shortlisted for the prestigious Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction, this is a masterpiece of autobiographical journalism.Aidan Hartley, a foreign correspondent, burned-out from the horror of covering the terrifying micro wars of the 1990s, from Rwanda to Bosnia, seeks solace and solitude in the remote mountains and deserts of southern Arabia and the Yemen, following his father’s death. While there, he finds himself on the trail of the tragic story of an old friend of his father’s, who fell in love and was murdered in southern Arabia fifty years ago. As the terrible events of the past unfold, Hartley finds his own kind of deliverance.‘The Zanzibar Chest’ is a powerful story about a man witnessing and confronting extreme violence and being broken down by it, and of a son trying to come to terms with the death of a father whom he also saw as his best friend. It charts not only a love affair between two people, but also the British love affair with Arabia and the vast emptinesses of the desert, which become a fitting metaphor for the emotional and spiritual condition in which Hartley finds himself.

From the Samuel Johnson Prize shortlisted author, a powerful literary memoir about life in rural Nairobi, one of the last true wildernesses of the world.Aidan Hartley grew up in Kenya, moving from farm to farm across Africa with his family. As an adult he moved to England to study, then became a war correspondent in Africa, and then, when he couldn't resist it any longer, a farmer in his own right.Aidan's farm today sits in view of the Kenyan Mountain. His work is dosing sheep, dipping cattle, fixing machinery, responding to the night alarms of rustlers entering the valley on elephant raids. Living here, injury means relying on a manual called Where There is No Doctor, and the home medicine chest complete with blood coagulants for gunshot wounds.Laikipia is a beautiful, wild place. Sometimes peaceful, and sometimes dangerous. It is also a landscape tragically at risk. Across the course of Aidan's life, the nature around him has changed. The wild hunting dog, cheetah, rhinos, elephants – even the giraffe and lion – face oblivion. Whole forests have been torn down. Kenya Mountain on the horizon is losing its tropical icefields – they will be gone in a handful of years.Paradise of Thorns is a restlessly inventive literary memoir: the story of Aidan's departure from cities and the irresistible move back to his real home. It is part glorious testament to the extraordinary heart of rural Africa as a place which is fast becoming lost; part antidote to the false impressions imposed on the country over the years; and part adventure story of drug trade, cattle raids, gunfights, tragic losses, ambushes, posses and battles.