Madagascar is an extraordinary land of isolated tribes, fantastical landscapes and beguiling creatures such as lemurs, tenrecs and mongooses. If it was stretched out across Europe, it would reach from London to Marrakech, and yet its road network is barely bigger than Jamaica's. Until about the time of Christ, no one lived here at all, and then, when humans did eventually appear, they came all the way from Borneo.
As well as visiting every corner of the island, John Gimlette will journey deep into its past, in order better to understand how Madagascar became what it is today. Along the way, he will meet politicians, sorcerers, gem prospectors, hunters, a long-lost community of Jews, and the descendants of 17th-century pirates.
His journey across the island, from the beauty of Madagascar's highlands to its parched southern coast, allows its history to unfold in chronological order, from the first humans to arrive here to the great French invasion of 1895 up to Madagascar's challenging trajectory post-independence.
