THE PEOPLE OF THE MIST

First published in 1894, The People of the Mist is an exciting story about a British adventurer who goes to Africa to seek his fortune, but who finds love and a legendary tribe who worship a giant crocodile god. When Leonard Outram loses both his inheritance and his fiancée he determines to go to Africa, which for an Englishman at this time was a land of opportunity, this being the period of the ‘Scramble for Africa.’ With his Zulu companion, Otter, he saves a young Portuguese woman, Juanna Rodd, from slavery and together they go in search of the People of the Mist, who are said to possess a hoard of fabulous jewels. When they find them, they are plunged into the midst of a power-struggle between the king and the priests of the crocodile god. A ripping yarn in classic ‘Boy’s Own’ style, this is a thrilling story from the pen of one of English literature greatest adventure novelists.

Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925) was educated at Ipswich School before careers as a colonial administrator in Africa and as a barrister in England. A prolific novelist, many of his stories, such as King Solomon's Mines and She, are set in Africa, and he is notable for portraying African characters sympathetically at a time when this was unusual. His 'lost world' novels influenced Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and Indiana Jones; he was knighted in 1912.