Horizon Fever

Not only was A. E. Filby a famous British explorer, but he was also my Uncle Archie. He died before I was born, but his unpublished manuscript, Horizon Fever, and many scrapbooks, survived. Proclaimed "the World's most travelled motorist", A. E. Filby undertook some breathtaking expeditions, including his 37,000 mile journey from London to Cape Town and back in a series of dilapidated motorcars.

Horizon Fever is an honest, colourful, often shocking account; a...
More Description

Not only was A. E. Filby a famous British explorer, but he was also my Uncle Archie. He died before I was born, but his unpublished manuscript, Horizon Fever, and many scrapbooks, survived. Proclaimed "the World's most travelled motorist", A. E. Filby undertook some breathtaking expeditions, including his 37,000 mile journey from London to Cape Town and back in a series of dilapidated motorcars.

Horizon Fever is an honest, colourful, often shocking account; a snapshot of bygone days and attitudes. It tells of missionaries, pygmies, big-game hunting, gold-mining, crossing the Sahara and swimming in the Nile with crocodiles. One of Archie's companions was a monkey called Congo. Another was a dog that adopted him, until it was killed and dragged up a tree by a leopard. Archie himself comes across as a courageous, feisty, quick-tempered, bossy little man, but full of fun, generous and never one to bear a grudge.

Thanks to Archie's records and photographs, we have a unique glimpse of an astonishing feat of endurance, 80 years after it was completed.

Victoria Twead, 2012