Christina Lamb’s much admired book The Africa House is subtitled “The True Story of an English Gentleman and his African Dream”. Published in 1999, it tells of the journalist-cum-author’s chance encounter with Mark Harvey and her subsequent visit to his family home at Shiwa Ng’andu. Shiwa House and the estate were developed by Harvey’s grandfather, Sir Stewart Gore-Browne, who moved out to Africa from Surrey, England, to build a mansion in the bush in the 1920s. It was surrounded by his own utopian village, which included the provision of schools, hospitals, playing fields, shops and a post office. Gore-Browne also assisted with the development of state infrastructure throughout the region, becoming active in liberal politics. He is, to date, the only white man to have been given a State Funeral in Zambia. The eulogy was delivered by none other than President Kenneth Kaunda. It’s a long way from Weybridge in Surrey!