Books
Jomo Kenyatta, the President of Kenya, signs a copy of his book Suffering Without Bitterness for Jeremy Murray-Brown
THE MONARCHY AND ITS FUTURE George Allen & Unwin Limited, 1969
Monarchy is Britain’s oldest political institution, older than Parliament, older even than Law Courts. British royalty can claim the oldest dynastic heritage in Europe. Like the Church, it has been buffeted throughout the ages but has survived into the present age. What will be its future? Will the traditions and loyalties of the past survive in a world of technology and mass communications? What do the Crown, and the Royal Family mean to the people in Britain, in the Commonwealth, in Europe, in America and in other countries?
The Monarchy and Its Future presents a number of widely differing opinions on topics raised by contemporary debate. The writers are from France, America and India. Edited and including an essay by Jeremy Murray-Brown.
KENYATTA George Allen & Unwin Limited, 1972; E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1973
Kenyatta’s life is the story of the African struggle for freedom. Few men have aroused such strong and conflicting emotions in others and witnessed such dramatic twists of personal fortune. Described as ‘the leader to darkness and death’, he became known as Mzee, ‘the father of his people.’
This book is the first to tell the full story of Kenyatta’s extraordinary and enigmatic career. It is written on the basis of original sources, most of which have never been published before. The result is a wholly-rounded portrait that is at once authoritative, intimate and entertaining. Though it is in no sense an official biography, it can claim to be the definitive account of Kenyatta’s life, and its objective approach to the enigmas that have surrounded the African leader places him firmly in his historical context.
Alternate Book of the Month Club Choice, U.S.A. 1973
It is notoriously difficult to write an objective biography of a living person. When the subject is a head of state, with a background and reputation as controversial as that of Jomo Kenyatta, the task becomes even harder. Jeremy Murray-Brown has performed it triumphantly. His study of the Kenyan President is a massive work, researched in painstaking detail, and presented with a balance and judgement that are remarkable. He avoids both superficiality and sycophancy.
—Times Literary Supplement
FAITH AND THE FLAG George Allen & Unwin Limited, 1977
Faith and the Flag is the story of the first contacts between the tribes of Africa and the civilization of nineteenth-century Europe. It is an absorbing story of faith and suspicion, patriotism and politics, self-aggrandisement and self-denial, diplomacy, nationalism and adventure.
This story is presented through the lives of six notable figures: Robert Moffat, the outstanding pioneer of southern Africa; his more publicized son-in-law, David Livingstone; Ludwig Krapf, the first Protestant missionary in East Africa and forerunner of Burton, Speke and Grant; Henry Morton Stanley, illegitimate son of a Welsh farmer, who became the most celebrated explorer of his time; the flamboyant French Archbishop of Algiers, Cardinal Lavigerie, founder of the Catholic White Fathers; and General Gordon, the enigmatic hero of Khartoum.
His success in conveying so much of the… detail and atmosphere of his subject makes the book both informative and enjoyable to read. —The Economist.