After reading Russian at Merton College, Oxford, John C Q Roberts worked in Africa and Europe with Shell International for four years. He then spent a decade teaching foreign languages at Marlborough College. From there, in 1974, he was recruited to an official public post in Russo-British cultural relations. An account of his two decades as Director of the Great Britain-USSR Association and the Britain-Russia Centre was the subject of his book Speak Clearly into the Chandelier.
The author was awarded literary prizes in Russia following the appearance of his book there in translation.
JUST BEFORE THE DAWN is a ‘snap-shot’ of four former African colonies as they approached independence at the end of the 1950s. It is also a travel book based on the author’s experience and adventures whilst living and working at that time in Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Ruanda-Urundi (as they were t...
