Journalism books - Banana Sunday

For old Africa hands Chris Munnion’s impressively researched and remembered Banana Sunday must be near the top of the list. The anecdote-rich, 470-page volume tracks the escapades of foreign correspondents in post-colonial Africa where Munnion was the London Daily Telegraph correspondent for an astonishing 23 years.

Munnion deftly combines horror and humour in recounting the adventures and misadventures of the journalistic giants of the time, like Donald Wise, John Osman, John Bulloch and Peter Younghusband (a real giant, 6’ 7”).

There is strife aplenty to report and in these rip-roaring years for Fleet Street many intros were enlivened by swims across shark-infested waters and crocodile-infested rivers. ■