A book about romance, risks and revelations… Martha Melville, an Australian traveller on a ‘discover Africa’ journey arrives in Mogadishu in l962, less than two years after the Somali Republic has become independent. She is looking for work, adventure, romance, friendship and enriching experiences.She finds them all in this beautiful, peaceful town that she chooses to make her own. Lenore Blackwood was born in Sydney in 1928. She was a commissioned freelance journalist for the Central Office of Information in London in the 1960s–70s. She also wrote and broadcast travel talks for the Home Service of the BBC. After teaching for a number of years, she developed a small business selling fine hand-made textiles and tribal jewellery collected during her travels.