Richard Dawkins

Red Strangers by Elspeth Huxley

“It’s a magnificent saga; an epic novel of the Kikuyu in Africa. The reason I wanted it to be republished is that I think it is such a wonderful book for showing you another life from your own. Huxley is so skilful in her writing that when the British arrive, we think of them as being strange and weird. Everything is geared to making the reader become a Kikuyu.

I wouldn’t have thought it would be possible to transport me into another world – I’m a fairly matter-of-fact sort of fellow – but this book, if anything could get me to be sympathetic to the idea that there is no absolute truth, this book comes closest to it. Everybody should read it.”