Africa book series in reading order

by Dorothy Gilman

by John Wilcox

Wilbur Smith was a British-South African novelist born in Northern Rhodesia. Smith's historical fiction covers four centuries of international involvement in Southern Africa. The catalogue lists 66 books, from When the Lion Feeds (1964) to Flashpoint (2026). Series include Courtney, Jack Courtney, Ancient Egypt, Hector Cross and Prey Zone. Recurring character listings include the Courtney family, Ballantyne and Hector Cross. David Churchill and Tom Harper each share the credit on 1 book. Subjects include Africa, Egypt, revenge, espionage and terrorism.

Doris Lessing

66 books• 6 series

Doris Lessing, born Doris May Tayler on 22 October 1919 and died on 17 November 2013, was a British novelist and the winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature. Born in Iran to British parents, Lessing lived there until 1925, grew up in Southern Rhodesia - now Zimbabwe - and moved to London in 1949, which is why the early career is sometimes labelled Rhodesian. The catalogue holds 66 titles from The Grass Is Singing (1950) to An Old Woman and Her Cat (2013). Children of Violence and Canopus in Argos are the two five-novel sequences; the Diaries of Jane Somers, The Fifth Child, Mara and Dann and the Collected African Stories follow. Africa, women and British social life recur as subjects.

Edgar Rice Burroughs

81 books• 12 series

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1 September 1875 to 19 March 1950) was an American writer of adventure, science fiction and fantasy, and the creator of Tarzan and John Carter. Burroughs wrote twenty-four Tarzan books and eleven books with John Carter as a recurring character, along with the Pellucidar and Amtor series and the Caspak trilogy. Tarzan also became a syndicated comic strip, films and merchandise. Catalogued titles begin in 1912 with A Princess of Mars and Tarzan of the Apes, followed by The Gods of Mars (1913), The Return of Tarzan (1913) and At the Earth's Core (1914). Subjects include extraterrestrial beings, Africa and Dejah Thoris.

H. Rider Haggard

78 books• 6 series

Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925) was an English writer of adventure romances set in exotic locations, Africa above all, and a pioneer of the lost world genre. The eighteen Allan Quatermain stories begin with King Solomon's Mines (1885), and Ayesha is the other named series. Haggard also worked on land reform across the British Empire. The catalogue holds 78 titles dated 1882 to 2013, from Cetywayo and His White Neighbours to a complete anthology, and covers novels, non-fiction and short fiction.

Tony Park, born in 1964, is an Australian author of thrillers and non-fiction who has worked as a newspaper reporter, a public relations consultant and a government press secretary, and served 34 years in the Australian Army Reserve including a six-month tour in Afghanistan in 2002 as a public affairs officer. Africa is the setting for most of his fiction: Far Horizon (2004) opens a catalogue of 29 titles, and safari guides, poachers and the Second World War recur as subjects. King of Beasts (2026) is the newest title.

G.A. Henty wrote historical adventure stories for young readers. The catalogue holds 109 Henty titles, opening with A Search for a Secret (1867) and closing at The Plague Ship (2002). War, military history and the conduct of life are the recurring subjects, and much of the work sits in England and the wider British past. Early titles include The March to Magdala (1868), Out on the Pampas (1870) and The Young Franc Tireurs (1872).

Nuruddin Farah

14 books• 3 series

Nuruddin Farah is a Somali novelist, born on 24 November 1945. From a Crooked Rib, Farah's first novel, appeared in 1970 and has been called a cornerstone of modern East African literature. Farah also writes plays for stage and radio, short stories and essays, and has lived and taught in countries including the United States, Britain, Germany, Sudan, India, Nigeria and South Africa. The catalogue holds 14 books through North of Dawn (2018), with series including Variations on the Theme of An African Dictatorship, Blood in the Sun and Past Imperfect.

Dorothy Gilman (June 25, 1923 – February 2, 2012) was an American writer known above all for the Mrs. Pollifax spy novels, whose heroine Emily Pollifax is a grandmother who takes up spying in her 60s. The Mystery Writers of America gave Gilman its Grand Master Award in 2010. The catalogue holds 36 titles published between 1949 and 2002. Early books such as Enchanted Caravan (1949), Carnival Gypsy (1950) and The Calico Year (1953) appeared under the name Dorothy Gilman Butters. Madame Karitska is Gilman's second series, and the last listed title is Kaleidoscope (2002).

Joseph Conrad

41 books

Joseph Conrad (1857–1924), born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, was a Polish-British novelist and story writer, regarded as one of the greatest writers in English. Conrad spoke English fluently only from his twenties, and always with a strong accent, yet became a prose stylist who carried a non-English sensibility into English literature. Many of the novels and stories use nautical settings and turn on crises of human individuality in a world Conrad saw as indifferent, inscrutable and amoral. Almayer's Folly (1895), Lord Jim (1900), Heart of Darkness (1902) and Typhoon (1902) sit among 41 catalogued titles.

Donald Eugene Pendleton (December 12, 1927 to October 23, 1995) was an American author of fiction and non-fiction who created Mack Bolan, a character with hundreds of millions of copies sold since a 1969 debut. From 1980, other authors wrote the Bolan books under the Pendleton name, at first with Pendleton's editorial guidance. Pendleton also wrote six Joe Copp, Private Eye novels and six Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective novels. Early titles include The Insatiables (1967), War Against the Mafia (1969) and Miami Massacre (1970).

Robert Wilson writes British crime thrillers across three series. Bruce Medway works in West Africa, introduced in Instruments of Darkness (1995) and continuing through The Big Killing (1996), Blood Is Dirt (1997) and A Darkening Stain (1998). Javier Falcon works in Spain, from The Blind Man of Seville (2003) through The Silent and the Damned (2005), The Hidden Assassins (2006) and The Ignorance of Blood (2009). Charles Boxer heads a third sequence. A Small Death in Lisbon (1999) and The Company of Strangers (2001) stand outside the series. Thirteen books date from 1995 to 2015, at a median 404 pages.

Abdulrazak Gurnah

11 books

Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Tanzanian novelist and academic, born on 20 December 1948 in the Sultanate of Zanzibar and of Yemeni origin. Gurnah came to the United Kingdom as a refugee in the 1960s, at the time of the Zanzibar Revolution. The catalogue lists 11 books from Memory of Departure (1987) to Theft (2025). Paradise (1994) reached the Booker and Whitbread shortlists; By the Sea (2001) made the Booker longlist and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize shortlist; Desertion (2005) was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize. Subjects include Africa, refugees, immigrants and England.

Mary Stewart wrote romantic suspense and, later, Arthurian historical fiction. The suspense novels begin in 1954 and continue through Wildfire at Midnight (1956), Thunder on the Right (1957), Nine Coaches Waiting (1958), My Brother Michael (1959) and The Ivy Tree (1961). The Arthurian Saga retells the legend of Merlin and the kings around him. 25 titles are catalogued in all, including children's books, short stories and poetry, the last being The Wind Off the Small Isles and The Lost One.

William Boyd

33 books• 2 series

Born on 7 March 1952, William Boyd is a Scottish writer who works as a novelist, short story author, screenwriter and film director. The catalogue holds 33 books from A Good Man in Africa (1981) to Cold Sunset (2026), with An Ice-Cream War (1982), Brazzaville Beach (1990), Any Human Heart (2002) and Restless (2006) among them. Boyd scripted the film Chaplin (1992) and directed The Trench (1999), a drama of the First World War. Prizes include the Whitbread First Novel Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Costa Book Award. Gabriel Dax is a Boyd series, and subjects include Africa, artists and both world wars.

Paul Theroux

68 books• 1 series

Travel writing and fiction have occupied Paul Theroux since 1968. Born in 1941, the American writer is catalogued here with 68 books, from Fong and the Indians (1968) to True North: On the Road in Canada (2026). The Great Railway Bazaar (1975) is his best known travelogue. The Mosquito Coast took the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1981, was filmed in 1986 and became a television series in 2021. Railways, voyages and description of place recur throughout the catalogue, which is ongoing.

Cozy mystery is Tamar Myers's form, and 49 catalogued books carry her name across three series: Pennsylvania Dutch Mystery, Den of Antiquity and Amanda Brown. Too Many Crooks Spoil the Broth (1993) opens the catalogue and Cousins From a Distant Sun (2026) is the newest entry. The recurring sleuths are Magdalena Yoder and Abigail Timberlake, and the books' subjects take in Mennonites, hotelkeepers, antique dealers, women detectives and cooking.

Andy McNab is the pen name of Steven Billy Mitchell, born 28 December 1959, a British novelist and former Special Air Service soldier. Public recognition came with Bravo Two Zero, an account of a Gulf War mission McNab led with the SAS, for which the Distinguished Conduct Medal followed; the Military Medal had come in 1979 for gallantry with the Royal Green Jackets in Northern Ireland. The catalogue lists 57 titles, among them two autobiographies, thrillers built around the intelligence officer Nick Stone, and books for younger readers in the Boy Soldier and Street Soldier sequences. The Rescue (2023) is the newest entry, and no further title is scheduled.

Evelyn Waugh

47 books• 2 series

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) was an English novelist, biographer and travel writer who also worked as a journalist and book reviewer. The satires Decline and Fall (1928) and A Handful of Dust (1934) came early; Brideshead Revisited followed in 1945, and the Sword of Honour trilogy between 1952 and 1961. Waugh's catalogue holds 47 titles across fiction, travel and biography, with editions dated as late as 2005. Waugh was educated at Lancing College and at Hertford College, Oxford, and taught school briefly before writing full time.

Dame Muriel Spark (1918-2006) was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. The Comforters (1957) opens her fiction, and Memento Mori (1958), The Bachelors (1960), The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) follow in quick succession. Spark also wrote criticism and biography, including a study of Emily Brontë. Catholicism, young women and English social life recur across 51 catalogued titles.

William Dietrich writes historical adventure novels and natural-history non-fiction. The Ethan Gage series, set during the Napoleonic Wars, has been translated into 28 languages and includes Napoleon's Pyramids (2007) and The Rosetta Key (2008). Dietrich has also set novels in the Roman Empire, Antarctica and Australia, while his non-fiction covers the natural and environmental history of the Pacific Northwest, where he grew up and worked as a newspaper journalist. The catalogue holds 20 titles, from The Final Forest (1992) to The Trojan Icon (2016).

Eric Walters

207 books• 18 series

Eric Walters, full name Eric Robert Walters, is a Canadian author of young adult fiction and picture books, born March 3, 1957 and the writer of more than 130 books. The catalogue lists 207 books from Stand Your Ground (1994) to Werewolves Don't Keep Diaries (2026). Series include Camp X, Rule of Three, Orca Echoes, Tiger, War Of The Eagles, We All Fall Down, Catboy and Teen Astronauts. Subjects include basketball, survival, orphans, the Second World War and adventure.

Leo Kessler wrote war fiction set in World War II, with Germany, Russia, Africa and military campaigns among the catalogued subjects. The 81 books begin in 1974 with SS Panzer Battalion, Claws of Steel and Death's Head. Kessler's series include SS Wotan, Stormtroop Edelweiss, Otto Stahl, Black Cossacks, Submarine and Rommel. From Tyranny to Freedom (2008) is the last listed title, and Eric Taylor is co-credited on 1 book.

Peter Dickinson OBE FRSL (16 December 1927 to 16 December 2015) was an English poet and author known mainly for children's books and detective fiction. Tulku (1979) and City of Gold (1980) both won the Carnegie Medal, and as of 2020 Dickinson was one of eight writers with two Carnegies. Eva (1988) was highly commended, and Dickinson was a finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2000. The catalogue lists 64 books, opening in 1968 with The Glass Sided Ant's Nest / Skin Deep and The Weathermonger. Kin, Jimmy Pibble, Changes Trilogy, Princess Louise and Ropemaker are the series.

Julius Lester

48 books• 2 series

To Be a Slave (1968) opens the catalogue of Julius Lester, an American writer for both children and adults who was also a civil rights activist, a photographer and a musician with two recorded albums of folk music and original songs. Lester taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for 32 years, from 1971 to 2003. The 48 listed titles run to The Girl Who Saved Yesterday (2016) and return to African American history, slavery, folktales and race relations. Lester lived from 1939 to 2018.