Historically rich, remote, and once unimaginably dangerous for travellers, Timbuktu still teases with "Find me if you can." Rick Antonson's encounters with entertaining train companions Ebou and Ussegnou, a mysterious cook called Nema, and intrepid guide Zak all make you want to pack up and leave for Timbuktu tomorrow.
As Antonson travels in Senegal and Mali by train, four-wheel drive, river pinasse, camel, and foot, he tells of fourteenth-century legends, eighteenth-century explorers, and today's endangered existence of Timbuktu's 700,000 ancient manuscripts in what scholars have described as the most important archaeological discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Think Eric Newby's A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush or Redmond O'Hanlon's Into the Heart of Borneo and you begin to see what kind of writer Rick Antonson is. To Timbuktu for a Haircut combines wry humour with shrewd observation to deliver an armchair experience that will linger in the mind long after the last page is read.
"Antonson's trek, via goat and donkey trail, to his guide Zak's home region of Dogon is a sweet story of bonding and cultural discovery. To Timbuktu for a Haircut is a good read."
Connected Traveller
Vancouver Sun
June 7, 2008
Globe and Mail
National Post
Georgia Straight
July 10, 2008
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix
Africa Travel Monthly
Antonson's trek, via goat and donkey trail, to his guide Zak's home region of Dogon is a sweet story of bonding and cultural discovery. To Timbuktu for a Haircut is a good read.
Connected Traveller
Antonson combines wry humour with shrewd observation to deliver an armchair experience to the elusive Timbuktu that will linger long after the last page is read.
Powell'sbooks.com
Like much of the most rewarding travel literature, Mr. Atonson's narrative turns out to be more revealing of the terrain travelled than of the intended destination.
George Fetherling
Diplomat and International Canada
October 1, 2008
Antonson handles the joys and occasional frustrations of his trip in vivid, straightforward prose and with a wry sense of humour ... he manages to strike the perfect balance between the journey and the traveller.
Robert J. Wiersema
Times-Colonist
June 29, 2008
This trip is for all of us armchair voyagers. We're left with the understanding that Timbuktu is 'more a passage than a destination, more a pilgrimage than a journey.
Melanie Scott
January 1, 2008
Reading this book makes you feel like this might be your experience if you attempted the trip yourself. It's good beach reading for those who will probably never touch the sands of the Sahara - at least not yet.
Carolyn Ali
Georgia Straight
July 10, 2008
Readers come away with a heightened sense of the history and social dynamics of West Africa. They're given vivid mental pictures of Antonson's experiences.
Robert J. Wiersema
The Vancouver Sun
June 7, 2008
It is the journey, not the destination, that matters in this absorbing book.
Bill Rambo
Winnipeg Free Press
July 13, 2008
The book is full of humour and insights gained from a personal voyage of discovery.
John Goodman
North Shore News
September 5, 2008
To Timbuktu for a Haircut ... is honest, thought-provoking and funny.
Jane Sweeney
Westworld
January 1, 2009
Antonson entertains without boring us with his inner demons and without the 'us and them' cynicism of some travel writers.
Russell Johnson
www.connectedtraveller.com
December 8, 2008
This is not a story written to glorify a modest, modern adventure - it is about closing old doors and opening new ones.
Matt Phillips
Travel Africa
January 1, 2008
...he assumes the role of a serious traveller, the kind that can turn out a book such as this one, relaying the story of a rough and rugged journey ... while, at the same time, providing the necessary historical, geographical and cultural context, expressed with charm and sensitivity.
George Fetherling
Seven Oaks Magazine
July 2, 2008
Kirkus Review
May 13, 2013