<p>In the early 1960s, 25-year-old Veronica Cecil decided to move to the Congo with her huband when he was offered a good post at a large multi-national company. This memoir tells of her time in the Congo.</p>

Bongo, Bongo, Bongo, I Don't Wanna Leave Congo

Cecil, Veronica

Kwela Books

<p><div>The fourth edition of <i>The Nobile Folios</i> explores <i>St Paul's from Moor Lane,</i> painted by Cyril Mann in 1948. London in the late '40s was beleaguered by the devastation of war. Mann cast his intense gaze on this scarred cityscape, and saw it for what it was. But his was no regular gaze: he saw the vitality and energy beneath this desperation which was symbolized by blinding light of the glowing ochre sun.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>This folio unearths Mann's vision by setting free the miraculous details that form this astounding canvas and by allowing two works to inform our reading of it. The first, a thoughtful essay by art critic Mark Hudson that contextualizes the painting and the artist; the other, a moving story by novelist Veronica Cecil about a cantankerous painter tapping into his creative energies.</div></p>

St Paul's from Moor Lane / As Flies to Wanton Boys / Cyril Mann's Post-War Cityscapes (Volume 4) (Nobile Folios)

Arts & Photography

Hudson, Mark

Individual Artists

Sylph Editions

Veronica Cecil was twenty-five years old when her husband was offered a job at a large multi-national company in the Congo. Filled with enthusiasm for their new life, the couple and their eleven-month-old son set off for an African adventure.  Very soon, however, Veronica began to realise that life in the Congo was not what she had imagined. Food shortages were an everyday occurrence; she felt like an outsider at the club in Leopoldville, which only the Belgians and other expats frequented; and flickers of violence were starting to erupt everywhere.  Six months later Veronica and her family were sent to Elizabetha, a remote palm oil plantation on the banks of the Congo River. But even here paradise didn't last. Civil war broke out, and the rebels captured the neighbouring town of Stanleyville and took all the whites hostage. Despite the fact that Veronica was on the verge of giving birth, the situation was so dangerous that she and her toddler had to be evacuated. Leaving her husband and all their possessions behind, she and her son began on a two-day journey through the jungle. But on the plane back to Leopoldville, the first labour pains began...Praise for Letters From Abroad, written and read by Veronica Cecil, BBC Radio 4: '. ..absolutely enthralling' Daily Telegraph; 'Blending her personal memories with the wider picture, Miss Cecil effortlessly packs more into her quarter hour than many an hour long documentary...' Daily Mail.

Drums on the Night Air

Biographies & Memoirs

Constable Robinson

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Books by Cecil, Veronica