New book about Malindi and History of the East African Coast

Bluff is Old Africa’s latest book, an autobiography that is set in Malindi on the Kenya coast from the 1940s until the 1970s. Written by Thomas Allfree, a fisheries officer and one of Malindi’s ‘characters,’ this book evokes life in the coastal town and gives insight into the history and the work of a fisheries officer trying to modernize a centuries old fishing industry. The author also ran his own ocean transport business between Malindi and Lamu and met some of that island’s legendary characters – ‘Daddy’ Cornell, ‘Coconut’ Charlie, and Percy Petley who started the island’s first hotel for ‘tourists.’ The book even records the day Allfree delivered Petley’s first guests from the Nanyuki Hook family.