Timbuktu: A Ladybird Expert Book: The secrets of the fabled but lost African city (The Ladybird Expert Series)

For me, and maybe for many people, Timbuktu sounds like the middle of nowhere. This beautifully written book shows me just how wrong you can be and puts Timbuktu at the absolute centre of African civilisation - which is where it remained for many hundreds of years. I probably wouldn't have picked up a lengthy text book on the subject but this little book had really everything you need to know about this city, this region and its history. It's also very good on geography. You can't understand Timbuktu without knowing that the river Niger flows away from the Atlantic and towards the sahara! It took European explorers a good few hundred years to work that one out. Illustrations have always been a central part of Ladybird books and sometimes it's a lucky dip with their quality. Not here. The illustrations of Angelo Rinaldi brilliantly capture the look and feel and grandeur of the whole story. You can almost taste the heat and dust. In combination with Casely-Hayford's concise and learned text I genuinely feel I have had a great swathe of my personal ignorance dispelled, illuminated and brought to life in the best possible way. I wish all learning came in such an attractive and effective package.