This engaging novel [A Good Man in Africa] about a damn-fool Englishman doing everything wrong in West Africa (Nigeria, lightly disguised) will give pleasure, both malicious and humane, to all Old Coasters. It is stiff with the British tribalism of expats. The hero, Morgan Leafy, is a junior diplomat with the inverted snobbery of an early Amis hero. A lower-middle Southerner, he is infuriated by the mannerisms of his bosses, the upper-middle Southerners. "Good man!" the book begins. "Oh, good man!" The compliment comes from a newly arrived young poshocrat who, Morgan fears, will get on better with the boss and the boss's daughter than Morgan can. "Good man"—like "old boy", "mate", "colonel", "sir" and "squire"—is an endearment used by British males to wound, as often as not. The real meaning of "a good man" is, however, illustrated indirectly, in parenthesis….

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