Tom Atkins

Africa Beckons Tom Atkins

In 1970, at the age of 25, Tom Atkins is unemployed and struggling to keep his young family and home in England. He sells his small car and uses the proceeds to buy a flight to Africa and with little preparation, sets off in search for a better life. Tom has only five pounds in his pocket and is obliged to borrow £30 from his father as they drive to the airport.




Then, in an incredible sequence of events, the situations he encounters become more life-threatening than life-changing as Tom stumbles from one perilous situation to another, often at the point of a gun. Lucky to survive horrendous plane journeys, the threat of imprisonment and the everyday challenges of a wild and dangerous continent. Tom lives to tell his tale.




These thrilling and often hilarious travel stories reflect s precarious time in both Tom's and Africa's history, and offer a fascinating personal insight into Idi Amin's Uganda and the pernicious Apartheid of South Africa, as they emerge from a colonial past to carve out a new future.