In his vivid travelogue and cultural history, the Norwegian professor Terje Tvedt journeys from mouth to source, presenting a deluge of detail about the sediments of history, folklore and nature along the Nile's banks. Tvedt, switching effortlessly from history to reportage, also brings the Nile into the present with discursions on everything from Barack Obama's family origins in Kenya and George W Bush's role in South Sudan's gaining independence in 2011 to Idi Amin feeding human bodies to the crocodiles. New Statesman
Terje Tvedt is Professor of Geography at the University of Bergen and has been Professor of Political Science and of Global History at the University of Oslo, Norway. He has published extensively on water-related topics. His books include The River Nile in the Age of the British (2004), A Journey in the Future of Water (2013), and he is the Series Editor of the pioneering History of Water series. He has also made three award-winning TV-documentaries on water: A Journey in the History of Water, The Future of Water and The Nile Quest.