/ 1 November 1996

An Englishman abroad in Africa

Telford Vice

IN SEARCH OF WILL CARLING: AN EPIC JOURNEY THROUGH AFRICA TO THE RUGBY WORLD CUP by Charles Jacoby (Simon & Schuster, R90)

RUGGER-BUGGERS who buy this book before spotting the subtitle may believe they are getting 343 pages of Rugby World Cup 1995 as distilled through the pen of an erudite Englishman. The Englishman, Charles Jacoby, is indeed erudite, but this is a rugby book with a distinct dearth of descriptions of the sweaty activities that make up the game for men with odd shaped balls.

Instead, Jacoby takes us on a colourfully recorded seven-month trip through 18 African countries, from Morocco to South Africa, with a continent’s worth of variety and adventure in between. That was not to be, but it does not stop Jacoby and friends – Red Walsh, army-type George Wilson-Fitzgerald and Emma Tindal, a photographer – from having the time of their lives taking on Africa in a dilapidated Land Rover. But In Search of Will Carling is not always a witty romp.

There is an horrific description of watching a man beaten to death by his fellow villagers for allegedly stealing from the tourists.

Much of the book is driven by the clich of The Englishman Abroad. But Jacoby, a prize- winning journalist, is too perceptive a writer to allow too much contemplation of his and his companions’ Anglocentric navels.

The precarious navigation of a police road- block in Zaire exemplifies his wit. “They told us to hand over our papers. We gave them a packet of cigarettes. They agreed that our papers were in order, but they said we would have to go back into town and visit immigration. We gave them a pair of sunglasses. They said they thought there was a possibility that immigration was asleep … They said he could be woken up. We gave them a sachet of self-tanning lotion … Could they raise the barrier now, please? They looked at it. Oh yes. The barrier. There was something else, though … a solar-powered calculator, yes, that was it. Up went the barrier and they gave us a smart salute as we raced off.”

Telford Vice is the author of In the Nick of Time: Peter Kirsten’s Life in Cricket (Viking)