Mary Douglas Leakey was a British paleoanthropologist who, among many other spectacular contributions, discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape which is now believed to be ancestral to humans. For most of her life, she worked along her husband, Louis Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, an important paleoanthropological locality in East Africa. She was remarkable in many ways, and her legacy will inspire generations of paleoanthropologist to come. Her life, now beautifully reimagined in Penny Haw‘s latest biographical novel, Follow Me to Africa (Sourcebooks), will inspire women, especially scientists and self-taught geniuses, to follow in her determined footsteps on whichever career path they have chosen for themselves.

It is no secret that I have been a huge fan of Penny Haw’s writing for many years, and every new novel is a joy for me as a reader. What I have enjoyed most over the years, apart from the great women’s stories Penny captures between the pages of her books, is her unfolding as a writer, who – like her protagonists – is not afraid to dream big dreams and is always searching for new ways to excel at her craft. And she succeeds – she herself is a true inspiration for all of us.

Follow Me to Africa takes place across two continents and two points in time. We learn of the young Mary’s journey to becoming a world-famous paleoanthropologist, and the trials and tribulations of her love for Louis Leakey. At the same time, when she is wrapping up her successful career in the field, we witness Mary’s encounter with a young woman who reminds her very much of her younger self. And the two of them meet an extraordinary animal who changes the way they think about each other and the world around them.

Follow Me to Africa will officially reach our bookshops only in February 2025, and I cannot wait for other readers to enjoy this special novel. For more news about the publication, you can follow Penny here: pennyhaw.com

Blurb:

It’s 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti plains of Tanzania. Here, seventy-year-old Mary Leakey enlists Grace to sort and pack her fifty years of work and memories.

Their interaction reminds Mary how she pursued her ambitions of becoming an archeologist in the 1930s by sneaking into lectures and working on excavations. When well-known paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey commissions her to illustrate a book, she’s not at all expecting to fall in love with the older married man. Mary then follows Louis to East Africa, where she falls in love for a second time, this time with the Olduvai Gorge, where her work defines her as a great scientist and allows her to step out of Louis’s shadow.

In time, Mary and Grace learn they are more alike than they thought, which eventually leads them to the secret that connects them. They also discover a mutual deep love for animals, and when Lisa, an injured cheetah, appears at camp, Mary and Grace work together to save her. On the morning Grace is due to leave, the girl—and the cheetah—are nowhere to be found, and it becomes a race against time to rescue Grace before the African bush claims her.

From the acclaimed author of The Invincible Miss Cust and The Woman at Wheel comes an adventurous, dual timeline tale that explores the consequences of our choices, wisdom that comes with retrospection, and relationships that make us who we are, based on the extraordinary real life of Mary Leakey.