Shaka the Great

1826: Shaka, king of the Zulus, has consolidated his power and is ready to move against those who continue to resist his authority. But now a new tribe has appeared - white men from across the Great Water - claiming they wish to trade with Shaka. These white men may seem puny, and their ways strange, but Shaka believes there's more to them than meets the eye. Obsessed with divining their secrets, however, he becomes oblivious to the threat growing from within his own court. Seething with sorcery and betrayal, battles and intrigue, triumph and tragedy, Shaka The Great sees one of the greatest leaders of all time consolidate his power as the first Europeans begin to arrive on the African continent. It takes us to an empire at its zenith, in a time when the name Zulu began to echo around the world as a byword for courage and nobility.

Born in 1966, Walton Golightly is a freelance writer from Durban, KwaZulu-Natal - on the doorstep of what used to be the Zulu Kingdom. Shaka the Great is his second novel and the follow-up to his first, AmaZulu. He shares his life with a few thousand books and two dogs. Occasionally the dogs let him sleep on the bed.