King Solomon’s Mines – H.Rider Haggard

English Victorian gentlemen venture into Darkest Africa to shoot elephants, hunt for treasure and get involved in tribal wars. I love this kind of thing with all its old school derring-do and conflicted imperial value systems, and this is an archetypal example.

I was intrigued by a sub-plot that tentatively suggested a love affair between one of the English adventurers and a Zulu woman. Sadly, it ends abruptly when she is heroically killed off and everybody agrees that it’s for the best because, after all, we can’t have mixed race relationships can we? Oh dear.