RIVER OF THE GODS GENIUS, COURAGE AND BETRAYAL IN THE SEARCH FOR THE SOURCE OF THE NILE
CANDICE MILLARD
Swift,349pp,£18.99
Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke, the rival Victorian explorers who sought the origin of the Nile, were both intensely driven characters. Burton disguised himself as a Muslim, even getting circumcised, in order to be the first Englishman to enter Mecca, while Speke had a thing for shooting pregnant animals and eating their foetuses.
Their first expedition ended with both men being attacked by Somalis and sustaining terrible
