Journey Without Maps

In 1936 Graham Greene undertook his 'journey without maps' to Liberia. He was 31 and had never travelled outside Europe. This account of his treacherous 350-mile walk through virgin forest is re-published with a preface written by Greene in 1946. At the time of his journey Liberia was unmapped territory where the British were content to leave blank spaces and the Americans fill them with the single word 'cannibals'. Greene tells of his encounters with village chiefs who had to be 'dashed' with chickens and whisky, lone Dutch prospectors, and an English medical missionary 'body and nerves worn threadbare by ten years' unselfish work'. He tries to understand the power of the village devils and the bush schools. In that now vanished world he learns how to encourage his child-like porters when they are on the brink of mutiny, but also to trust them. In a chapter headed 'Civilized Man' he marvels at their delight in the full moon celebrations and regrets his own world's lost contact with the lunar influence. The boredom of travel is well brought out - Greene tries to relieve the monotony of a five-hour march by thinking of his next book, but is afraid to concentrate on it for too long 'for then there might be nothing to think about next day'. Near the border with French Guinea he experiences the happiness and freedom of Africa for the first time. When he finally reaches the coast he is at the point of exhaustion - and the end of the whisky. His experiment - his search for the heart of darkness in Africa - is related with compassion and originality. His descriptions of towns such as Dakar, of characters like the Dictator of Grand Bassa and the exiles marooned in their legations in Monrovia are vintage Greene. (Kirkus UK)