Dick Hobson, lived in Africa from 1937 to 1977 as a schoolboy, wartime soldier, journalist and public relations officer. He acquired his interest in the history of Zambia under the tutelage of Vernon Brelsford, founder and editor throughout its life of the Northern Rhodesia Journal. He describes himself modestly as "a scribbler on the margins of history", and among hundreds of articles his longest pieces have been Rubber, a history of the indigenous wild rubber industry, Show Time, a history of the Agricultural & Commercial Society of Zambia, and Food & Good Fellowship, the story of the Lusaka Lunch Club.He lives to in retirement in Sussex, but maintains his Zambian connections through editing the Zambia Society's newssheet, News from Zambia and as honorary secretary of the Zambia Society Trust.

Zambia is one of the most interesting countries on the continent of Africa, and this book sets out to prove it. Dick Hobson, the author, has used his extensive collection of books, papers, cuttings and correspondence about Zambia to build on the experience of many years of living in and writing about the country.