The Africa run cover

The Africa run

by Lucilla Andrews

It's summer 1955 and three people who were wartime friends are appalled to find they are fellow travellers on a small, old British passenger liner on the ten-week round-Africa run. Elinor Mackenzie, widowed during the war, is now determined to make a new life for herself. Dr Paddy Brown is sailing around Africa to convalesce from the polio that has ruined both his intended marriage and his soaring medical career. George Ashden, ex-GP, is travelling to Rhodesia. Recently widowed, he is still haunted by his unhappy marriage—and the memory of Elinor in 1945. It is only in the Suez Canal that Paddy finally discovers the secret which Elinor has known since Genoa. And in the burning heat of the Red Sea his action forces the three old friends into the inescapable proximity of passengers in the same class. Swinging between dark, bombed wartime London and the brilliantly sunlit decks of the liner, The Africa Run is a memorable and evocative love story.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?