Ike’s second novel, published in London by the Harvill Press in 1970 and printed by Collins Clear-Type Press for the publishers at 30A Pavilion Road. The jacket is designed by Jillian Willett. Ike was himself a university registrar, and the novel is set on a campus.
The jacket describes a fictional African university where English and American professors, each determined that their own country’s influence should predominate, end by turning the campus into a battlefield — with sex and juju playing their part, and some promising careers coming to an untimely end. It is careful to note that the author is as funny at the expense of the African academics as of the Westerners.
The disclaimer leaf is unusually emphatic. Songhai University, the setting, “does not exist, neither does it resemble any university known to the author at the time of writing”. A glossary of African expressions is promised at the end of the book.
The back matter reprints notices for Toads for Supper, Ike’s first novel, from the Sunday Telegraph, the Evening Standard, the Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement.
