The Caliban Shore

The ‘Grosvenor’ was one of the finest East Indiamen of her day, a grand three-masted square-rigger of 741 tons bristling with 26 cannon. When she ran aground on the treacherous coast of south-east Africa, an astonishing number of her crew and passengers, including women and children, reached the shore safely. But the castaways were hundreds of miles from the nearest European outpost – and utterly ignorant of their surroundings and the people among whom they found themselves.

Stephen Taylor pieces together this extraordinary saga with tremendous narrative flair. Drawing upon much new research, he sifts the myths that became attached to the ‘Grosvenor’ from a reality that is no less gripping. Taking the reader to the heart of what is now the Wild Coast of Pondoland, The Caliban Shore reveals the misunderstandings that led to tragedy, tells the story of those who escaped and unravels the mystery of those who stayed.

Author Biography

Stephen Taylor grew up in South Africa, and now works for The Times. He is the author of several celebrated books on Africa. The Mighty Nimrod (1989) was praised by Wilfred Thesiger as ‘comprehensive and perceptive’, while Jan Morris declared his history of the Zulu people, Shaka’s Children (1994) a ‘generous and truly moving work’. His most recent, Livingston’s Tribe: A Journey from Zanzibar to the Cape was described in the Daily Mail as the ‘most honest as well as the most enthralling account out of Africa for years’.