A Walk Across Africa

Roy Bridges is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Historical Society and Emeritus Professor of History in the University of Aberdeen. After graduating from Keele and London Universities he taught at Makerere University in Uganda before joining Aberdeen. He has written extensively on exploration, especially of Africa, and believes it should be seen in the more general context of Africa's history as well as that of the societies which sent the explorers. The work and career of Grant (also a product of Marischal College which became part of the University of Aberdeen) provides an excellent opportunity to illustrate this approach.A member of the Hakluyt Society since 1964, Roy Bridges has served on the Council on several occasions and had the honour to become President from 2004 to 2010. In 1996 he co-edited with Paul Hair Compassing the Vaste Globe of the Earth, a set of essays celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Society's foundation including his own account of the Society's founder, William Desborough Cooley. In 2006 came the Four Travel Journals volume which included his edition of 'A Dangerous and Toilsome Journey', the account by the freed slave Jacob Wainwright of the transportation of Dr Livingstone's body to the coast.Professor Bridges livesten milesnorth of Aberdeen in Newmachar, of which he has also written a history.