Blood River

JOHN LE CARRE

Quite superb…..a masterpiece

WILLIAM BOYD

Tim Butcher's extraordinary, audacious journey through the Congo is worthy of the great 19th century explorers. Completely enthralling but also a thoughtful and sobering portrait of modern Africa

ALEXANDER MCCALL SMITH

A remarkable, fascinating book by a courageous and perceptive writer. One of the most exciting books to emerge from Africa in recent years.

THE SUNDAY TIMES

Tim Butcher's book is the latest in a long line, running through Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, VS Nai-paul… his account of a hair-rising trip from east to west, against all advice, by motorbike and then river boat, is gripping and harshly informative…

MAX HASTINGS

Blood River represents a remarkable marriage of travelogue and history, which deserves to make Tim Butcher a star for his prose, as well as his courage.

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

From his adventure he has plundered a wealth of terrific stories, and survived to recite a rosary of unstinting horror.

FERGAL KEANE

This is a terrific book, an adventure story about a journey of great bravery in one of the world's most dangerous places. It keeps the heart beating and the attention fixed from beginning to end.

HATCHARDS

…unputdownable…

GILES FODEN

An intrepid adventure... Tim Butcher has followed in the footsteps of Stanley and Conrad. It takes a lot of guts to yomp through the Congo and he obviously has plenty of those. But it is the wit and passion of the writing which keeps you engrossed.

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

..stirring and thought-provoking.

AESTHETICA MAGAZINE

….a remarkable travelogue of exquisite proportions…. highly emotive, historical and personal…Butcher's elegant style demands the reader's attention…….Blood River is nothing short of a modern-day masterpiece.

WANDERLUST

What makes Blood River such a compelling read is the fact that the journey becomes an exercise in mental terror, the author skilfully conveying the exhaustion of six weeks on tenterhooks, wondering what might happen just around the next bend.

THOMAS PAKENHAM

Tim Butcher deserves a medal for this crazy feat. I marvel at his courage and his empathy with the unfortunate Congolese...

ESQUIRE

…gripping…

TRAVEL AFRICA

The past meets present in this enthralling travelogue through the depths of the Congo.

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Blood River - Rated
Tim Butcher's travelogue / historical account of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a strange book, being at times insightful, astounding, annoying, real as well as cheesy.

Butcher undertook to cross the DRC following the Congo river on the same route taken by the explorer Stanley in the 19th Century, whose expedition kick started the Congo's modern colonial history. As such, as Butcher makes his way across land he has ample opportunity to wax lyrical on historical events in each locality as well as the broader social history of how the Congo came to experience over a century of national bloodshed. The physical feat Butcher achieves is incredible, and he does a good job of capturing the sense of complete isolation he must have experienced as he carved a path across country, thousands of kilometers from any form of rescue.

However Butcher does have a taste for the melodramatic, hamming up his stories repeatedly with clichéd descriptions. That said he also manages to tell stories of genuine human interest, as well as make some thoughtful analysis of why the post-colonial Congo has struggled so much with corruption. As such I felt a mixture of admiration towards the man, sorrow for the country and annoyance at the text. Ultimately it is a tribute to Butcher's passion for his subject that despite his repeatedly cheesy writing the overall sense one if left with is of sombre pathos for a whole nation, and it's people, who have been used and abused again and again.

Gripping, exciting - and more than a bit disturbing - Rated
Truly astonishing book as a journalist in 2004 tries to retrace Stanley's expedition across Congo, from the 'broken heart' of Africa to the coast.

Incredible courage as he faces blood-chilling ordeals & iminent death on several occaisions.

But what is breath-taking and almost inconceivable is his account of just how Congo has regressed - in many respects 2004 was worse of than 1874 when Stanley made his journey. Descriptions of finding overgrown raily sleepers in the middle of dense 'virgin jungle', and accounts of how dangerous, corrupt & primitive conditions are now in places that 50 years ago were safe, civilised and (as one of his meetings explains) "more sophisticated than Greece"

Gripping, fascinating and thought-provoking.

My only criticism is I wish there were more photos (although there is a website)

Could have been worse... - Rated
Tim Butcher coins his own name for this kind of book when he says it's not adventure, nor leisure, but 'ordeal' travel. It's a strange book - compelling reading for sure, but I nonetheless put it down with a faint sense of expectations unmet. Not that one would wish the author ill, but the tremendous sense of anticipation and fear which he builds up in preparing for his epic journey across the Eastern Congo and the dire warnings offered by his many advisers are rarely matched by the disasters which befall him and it's hard not to feel a certain churlish disappointment. It certainly sounds like a pretty uncomfortable trip, and not one that I envy him, but one never really has the sense that life or limb are endangered by anything much more than a mosquito. The whole journey has an oddly colonial flavour too, as Butcher is variously conveyed by individuals, agencies and a variety of craft from one end of his journey to the other, rarely, one senses, carrying his own bag. For the ignorant however (among whom I include myself) it includes some fascinating and illuminating context on how the Congo became what it is - a country where time appears to be running backwards - and this is where the real value of the book perhaps lies.

It is a cracking read though - after I came across it on holiday, most of the other volumes I'd taken were just excess baggage. Over the next couple of weeks (as my wife would attest) it had to be pulled from my protesting grasp at regular intervals each day. The historical/ political context was provided with a light hand and I came away with a much better understanding of how the Congo had arrived where it is today. My friends also benefitted, whether they liked it or not, from the many passages I felt compelled to read out. So if my only objection was that it in some ways resembled a horror story which didn't quite deliver on the horror, that at least reflected a good outcome for Mr. Butcher and what kind of monster would wish for anything else? I'll certainly be buying his future work.

How to get very quickly up an unpleasant river surrounded by awful foreigners - Rated
An unremarkable account of a geographically remarkable journey. Amazon web reviews are good but, having read other books on Africa, this one is very poor. Bloody River would be a better title as the author seems personally offended by the Congo river while he races along it as fast as possible. If there had been a motorway he would have done the whole trip as a motorbike pillion passenger, shouting anecdotes from books he has read into the slipstream. Nothing interesting happens to him personally. Butcher has very little originality in his African commentary except in the running account of his own insipid mental and physical state. First-comers to books on Africa might be impressed. If you want to know about Africa there are many better books than this one. State of Africa by Martin Meredith is heavyweight but far superior. Michael Palin's Sahara is funnier. Even Geldof in Africa is better than Bloody River.

Superb - Rated
By mixing vivid accounts of the beauty of the Congo with a healthy dose of sheer wit, humour and an almost thriller-paced story of this audacious journey along the Congo River, Butcher's "Blood River" stands out as a fascinating read. Well-written, meticulously researched and a story beautifully told, it is most likely one of the most readable book about Africa that has come out for a very long time - highly recommended!