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Book Review of A Calabash of Diamonds

A Calabash of Diamonds
A Calabash of Diamonds
Author: Margaret Lane
Genre: Nonfiction
Book Type: Hardcover
easyid avatar reviewed on + 14 more book reviews


How Margaret Lane and her husband got into and out of the jungles of Mozambique alive is a mystery to me. Her memoir is replete with disaster after disaster and -- finally--very real danger. She was at one time one of England's top writers (most noted for her books on Beatrix Potter), and she uses all her skills in this entertaining and eye-opening account of the diamond expedition.

I came to correspond with Lane's daughter a couple of years ago, and she told me she was amazed that this book even found its way into print -- that her mother and father's hubris in going to Africa to rob an ancient grave could have been construed as a crime in both Africa and England. How they got their story out, without going to jail, is a mystery.

Good reading. I recommend the book.