Dinner with Mugabe: 7/10

Can there be a better book on the history of modern-day Zimbabwe? In Dinner with Mugabe: The Untold Story of a Freedom Fighter Who Became a Tyrant journalist-turned-author Heidi Holland has managed to track down ALL the important players who shaped Mugabe's mutation into a monster: everyone from Ian Smith - the last leader of Rhodesia to waiters that served him at a Victoria Falls hotel. The book culminates in a rare interview with the man himself.

My only criticism would be that Heidi Holland feels the need to interject her own views and analyses after almost every interview. She repeats, time and again, how Mugabe's troubled life - including stints in jail, possible torture, the death of his older brother etc - played a part in his becoming the "man" he is today.

But this is an insightful, valuable book, one which will no doubt be studied by historians, diplomats and anyone with even a passing interest in Africa's most enduring dictator.