The Anglo-Ethiopian Society
Book Club - Boy 87 and The Prince Who Walked With Lions
Ele Fountain and Elizabeth Laird
Tuesday 24th July 2018
7:30pm, National Theatre, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PX - all welcome
The Society's book club will discuss two short novels, written for young adults, Boy 87 and The Prince Who Walked With Lions.
Boy 87 is by Ele Fountain who has worked as an editor in children's publishing. She lived in Addis Ababa for several years, where she was inspired to write Boy 87, her debut novel, a gripping, uplifting tale of one boy's struggle for survival; it echoes the story of young people all over the world today.
Shif is just an ordinary boy who likes chess, maths and racing his best friend home from school. But one day, soldiers with guns come to his door - and he knows that he is no longer safe. Shif is forced to leave his mother and little sister, and embark on a dangerous journey; a journey through imprisonment and escape, new lands and strange voices, and a perilous crossing by land and sea. He will encounter cruelty and kindness; he will become separated from the people he loves.
Boy 87 is published in paperback as well as in Kindle and Audio CD formats.
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Boy 87 by Ele Fountain. Publisher: London, Pushkin Press, 2018. Paperback: ISBN:9781782691976 Price: £6.99 |
The Prince Who Walked With Lions was written by the award winning author Elizabeth Laird. It is a fictionalised imagining of the story of Prince Alamayu seen through hid eyes.
Alamayu is the young son of King Tewodros of Abyssinia who watches with terror and awe as the British Army is circling the stronghold of his father. Its mission is to rescue the British Envoy, held prisoner. Alamayu knows that his father is as brave as a lion, but the fighting is cruel and efficient. By the time it is over, Alamayu is left without parents, throne or friends. In a misguided attempt to care for him, the British take Alamayu to England. There he is befriended by the Queen herself and enrolled at Rugby College to become a ‘proper’ English gentleman. What the English see as an honour is, to this lonely Ethiopian prince, terrifying and brutal.
The Prince Who Walked With Lions is published in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle formats.
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The Prince Who Walked With Lions by Elizabeth Laird. Publisher: London, Pan Macmillan, 2012. Hardback: ISBN:9780230752436 Price: £12.99 Paperback: ISBN:99780330530392 Price: £6.99 |
We will meet in The Long Bar on the ground floor of the National Theatre.
If you would like to attend, or want further information, please email the Book Club.