After travelling to Morocco last year, this book helped to colorfully capture the ambiance of the land and culture. Turning the pages transforms your imagination to the beautiful people of Morocco.

This book will be viewed by photographers and art lovers as a magnificent picture book, by travelers as a journey into the grace of Morocco, by architects as a model for design. This book made a trip to Morocco inevitable, and served as a reminder of the beauty of the country.

This is a great book for projects on anything about Morocco. It gives you facts about history, government, culture, economy, geography, etc. The pictures of Morocco are beautiful and make you want to visit the country. This is a great book if you just want to read about something new. I found it very helpful to my project on Morocco and got an A!

Timeless Places: Morocco is an enjoyable read, which takes the reader (and the viewer) to a land which is filled with mystery and mysticism. The language is poetic, and the photography is breathtaking.

Anne & Keith McLachlan have covered just every possible track and hamlet with the wide open eyes of the first world tourist. If there is a bus or lorry going from one remote place to another, they mention it, plus the condition of the track, the lodging, the food and what have you. They not only give thourough info on history, geology, politics and social structure, but also on how to handle harassing 'guides'and others. This book is in my opinion the best so far. I've been in Morocco twice now and this book beats the guide by The Lonely Planet, The Rough Guide and the French: Maroc, edition Gallimard. However, if you prefer beautiful photo's, this book is not the one. In that case the French guide beats them all.

Morocco was the first nation with which the USA ever signed a treaty of peace and friendship, in June of 1786, and the two countries have been friends ever since. In November, 1942 Moroccan troops helped American troops evict Vichy French troops and the "German Armistice Commission" from Morocco. However, the history of Morocco is not well known in the USA, largely because there has been no good book in English on the subject until this one.

Having been an eyewitness of events in Morocco from 1951 to 1954, and having talked to many residents of Morocco (Arab, Berber, French, etc.) about their recollections, I am deeply impressed by how much Pennell knows about the period I saw or heard about. For example, he briefly mentions a fact I never expected to see in print: that many (perhaps most) of the weapons used by the Moroccan independence movement in the '50s were supplied by American enlisted men and junior officers on bases in Morocco; the weapons were gotten from NATO stocks in Europe and flown secretly into Morocco by US military pilots in USAF and USN aircraft. Because every American involved was risking a general court-martial, they all took great care to keep this traffic a secret. But Pennell mentions it in one sentence, although he doesn't quite get it correct. Amazing that he found about it at all!

I could cite various other facts that I'm surprised Pennell unearthed. However, he doesn't always get the context quite right. For example, after discussing the final phase of French military conquest in 1934, he leaves the impression that French rule in the French "Protectorate" was complete. He seems to be unaware that the fighting in the High Atlas and AntiAtlas had been so difficult that the French unofficially agreed that they would not attempt to establish French rule in certain parts of those areas, provided that the Berber tribes didn't take military action against the French elsewhere.

He also has a difficult time disentangling the activities and motives of Si Thami El Glaoui, the pasha of Marrakesh from 1918 to 1956. This is not surprising; El Glaoui was one of the most complex and enigmatic characters of the 20th Century. Pennell portrays El Glaoui basically as a supporter of the French, and of conservative forces. I believe this is somewhat of a misinterpretation. El Glaoui used the French, and was used by the French, for most of El Glaoui's years in power; however, El Glaoui's primary motive was neither radical nor conservative, neither pro-European nor anti-European, neither a modernizer nor a foot-dragger. El Glaoui's overriding motive was to keep the Berber tribes of Central and Southern Morocco united enough, under his control, to prevent them from being completely subjugated by the French, the Arabs, or anybody else. To do that, he would have made a pact with the Devil, and several times more or less did. This doesn't come across clearly in Pennell's book, although he has his facts straight about El Glaoui's words and actions.

And he fails to convey clearly the unpredictability and occasional intensity of the fighting between the independence movement on one side and the French and Spanish on the other, throughout the period between the start of the independence movement and the achievement of independence. Indeed, by 1952, some senior French civil servants in Morocco considered that the French had already lost, and by 1954 the heart of the Casablanca Arab section was completely under control of the independence movement; no French force smaller than a platoon could enter that area without taking heavy casualties.

Despite such minor quibbles, this is an admirable, carefully researched book, with plenty of source notes and a good bibliography. I believe it will be the standard work on its subject for many years.

Walter Harris, London Times correspondant and 30 year inhabitant of Tangier, delivers the diffinitive account of pre-protectorate Morocco and the Moroccan Royal Courts. This eyewitness account of an ancient culture coming to grips with an overwhelming Western influence is both absorbing and hillarious to the point of disbelief. Harris' tales of Berber rebels and a matter-of-fact Sultanry, in addition to his coverage of the inevitabile process of European colonialization, captures the loss of innocence which befell a still vital land. A must read for anyone interested in North African history.

Originally, I borrowed this book from the library and it was so good I just purchased a copy! I've read many cookbooks over the years, but I find this one to be exceptional in many ways. First, it's bound like ALL cookbooks should be (spiral), so it lies flat. Second, the recipes are easy to follow and use common ingredients. Third, the food is GOOD! I've made ginger beer, jollof rice (which has become a family favorite), Nigerian Chicken, and a few other dishes that were all hits! Even the spicier foods were winners with the kids. I especially enjoy the fact that there are African American dishes included that bring back fond childhood memories. This book would make a great gift and I plan on giving it to several friends that are getting married soon (as well as for Kwanzaa!).

This book was fantastic! Incredible! Inspiring, enchanting, lyrical, phenominal -- I don't know what else to say! Set in Africa, this novel continues the story that began with Flame Trees of Thika. Luscious, vivid and real, the setting is described in delicious detail. I felt as though I was in Africa. The characters are flawless proof of the author's talent. Tilly and Robin, the main character's parents, are engaging, funny, clever people with a stream of schemes to strike it rich. Interestingly enough, they don't care much for money, and only want it so that they can begin a new project. The picture the author paints of the Kikuyu (the natives) and their complex society is a clear window into another culture that captivates the reader with its striking vividness and the differences from our own. Social stature revolves around the number of goats and wives one possesses; disputes, or shauri, are as interweaved as a spider's web. The animals in the story are also described very well, and given personalities that are as real to the reader as the crinkling pages of this incredible book. I only wish that I could never stop reading it. I would recommend spending any amount of money or searching through any number of libraries to find this crisp, brilliant jewel of a novel.

"Move Your Shadow" is one of the very best journalistic/popular accounts ever written on South Africa, or any other part of the continent for that matter. I was momentarily shocked to learn that this moving and insightful book is now out of print, until I recalled how ruthlessly the bottom line increasingly determines publishing these days. Lelyveld was a NY Times reporter in South Africa in the early 1980s, thoroughly exploring the most important issues throughout that bitterly divided country. Few works convey so well the routine indignity and daily horror imposed on black South Africans by the white-supremacist regime from 1948 up to the 1994 elections achieving majority rule. Perhaps the best chapter is on the long-distance bus rides erquired of migrant workers forced to live far from their jobs, by laws mandating residence in impoverished rural "homelands" (read: dumping grounds for unwanted "surplus" population).

The major omission in this book is the relative lack of coverage of the political resistance to apartheid. Though it gets a 5-star rating to highlight its merits, the missing political dimension means that "Move Your Shadow" probably deserves 4 1/2 stars. While Lelyveld's insight and compassion make this a superior account, one must turn elsewhere for fuller treatment of the African National Congress, Pan-Africanist Congress and other less formal movements. For a similar journalistic account also encompassing politics, read William Finnegan, "Crossing the Line." There's also Tom Lodge, "Black Politics in South Africa Since 1945," Stephen Davis, "Apartheid's Rebels," and Allister Sparks' exciting if overdramatized "Tomorrow Is Another Country." But for the best understanding, one must read what BLACK South Africans have written, including Mamphela Ramphele, "A Bed Called Home" and Elsa Joubert, "Poppie Nongena" among many others.