BOOKS BY DENIS MONTGOMERY

The Seashore Hypothesis of human evolution, and African pre-history.

The Author's Travels in full-length Books and Collected Stories.

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THE SEASHORE HYPOTHESIS OF HUMAN EVOLUTION and
AFRICAN PRE-HISTORY
The author has studied the evolution of mankind in Africa for thirty five years and more. Traveling about the continent he was always aware of the relevance of the origin of mankind and the large mammals that have evolved in Africa with its unique geography, spanning the equator and bordering the Indian Ocean.

SEASHORE MAN AND AFRICAN EVE,
This is an extraordinarily important work, in print for the first time - the comprehensive exploration begins with the latest facts and speculations about the origin of mankind and our evolution from a forest ape 6-8M years ago. The principal role of the eastern African Indian Ocean littoral and seafood nutrition is central to the hypothesis. Also featured is the particular importance of seashores as endless highways for hominid migrations as ice-ages waxed and waned, thus making possible the spread of our ancestors around Eurasia, Australasia and eventually into the Americas. New insights into cosmic radiation which caused particular critical mutations are investigated.

This book is also available as an eBook which can be downloaded from the publisher's website.

A BEAUTIFUL IVORY BANGLE,
In this book the author has traced the impact and effects of the Indian Ocean trading system on sub-Saharan peoples. During the last 5,000 years there have been relentless pressures on the native peoples of Africa from northern hemisphere civilisations. The Neolithic Agricultural Revolution and metallurgy forced the evolution of sedentary society, urbanisation and political complexity. The core-peoples of Africa, the source of all people on Earth, were drawn into this turmoil primarily by trade which diffuses knowledge and practice. The Indian Ocean provided much impetuous.

BOOKS OF TRAVEL AND COMMENTARY
Since the 1950s, the author has enjoyed wilderness travel in Africa and he wrote books and stories about the more important of these several expeditions. Always, there was a serious goal in addition to the enjoyment of adventure travelling. Montgomery was seeking a fuller understanding of history by seeing where it happened.

THE REFLECTED FACE OF AFRICA, published in the United Kingdom and South Africa in 1988, is the story of a journey in an overlanding truck from Johannesburg to England in 1985/86. The route in fourteen countries proceeded through Central and eastern Africa, the Congo and along the Sahel before traversing the Sahara. This revised and expanded Second Edition is now available.

A large collection of fine photographs taken on this journey has now been published in book form to illustrate this remarkable expedition through all the geographical zones of the continent, and visiting many historical sites. It is titled The Reflected Face of Africa - Images, and is only available from the publisher's website.

TWO SHORES OF THE OCEAN, published in 1992, is the second of a planned series, culminating in the 'Aquatic Ape' books. This book traces the author’s travels in India and eastern Africa, looking closely at some little-known history of this region, seminal to humanity, and opening the author’s debate on the Seashore Hypothesis, or 'Aquatic Ape Theory' as it is popularly known. Out of print for many years, in order to maintain the continuity of the author's work this book is available here in a second edition.

CREST OF A WAVE, This book, first drafted in 1966 and re-written in 1993 is published for the first time here. It is the story of the author’s 1965 journey in his own Landrover with a companion from London to Durban, South Africa, via North, East and Central Africa. This safari took place during the birth of the general African post-colonial period. This book now has historical importance besides being a fascinating story of young people adventuring in a continent whose character has changed irrevocably. Now at last available for purchase in print.

A portfolio of photographs taken on this journey has now been published to illustrate this remarkable expedition at an important time in the modern history of Africa. It is titled Crest of a Wave - Images, and is only available from the publisher's website.

MUD, SANDS AND SEAS This is an anthology of short stories and essays which fill in the cracks between the author's principal journeys described in his other books, available from this site. Diaries were kept during most of the author's safaris. Many of these were made into short stories. These traveller's tales span the years from 1949 to 2007 during which great changes occurred. These stories reflect those changes and provide snapshots of times gone forever.

GOLDEN RHINO This is a book of traveller's tales written as a precursor to the scholarly books on the Seashore Hypothesis and African pre-history. It tells stories of travelling in Africa, much of it for fun but there was a serious purpose. The author was honing his knowledge with a definite objective - to understand and enlarge his intuitive feeling for the origins of mankind and the mysteries of African pre-history. The problem besetting historians of Africa is that the native peoples south of the Sahara had a complex yet illiterate culture. Only recently has archaeology and reasoning brought it closer to reality.

CLOSING THE CIRCLE This handsome hardback book 'closes the circle' of the author's forty year odyssey examining the exploration of the world by Portuguese pioneers of globalization. This particular Portuguese phenomenon during the 15th - 19th centuries is examined with new insights, especially the Kondratieff wave hypothesis of global economic cycles expanded by Prof Tessaleno Devesas. The author has visited 32 places of special importance to the Portuguese pioneering explorers in Africa, South America, Asia and the home base, beginning at the "Terra da Boa Gente" in Mozambique in 1969. There are descriptions and his traveler's tales for every one. He explains how he became enthralled by this subject through his friendship with Tito Larcher.

ZULULAND Here is a publishing departure. The author has compiled a collection of more than 300 fine photographs into a comprehensive illustration of old Zululand in more than 200 pages. The focus is on the history, the native peoples, the game reserves and the landscapes. His family's history connected to Shaka's kingdom since 1857 is explored. He was born in that kingdom and his great-great-grandfather is buried there. There are photographs of important historical interest, and stunning images of a lovely land. Full colour in US 'Letter' size.

COASTS Here is a collection of images from photographs of coastlands of the South Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. The author has felt a particular affinity with seashores and the oceans since boyhood. To celebrate all those travels and expeditions around these coastlands he compiled some of his favourites. There are more than 250 large colour images.

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The Introduction and two sample chapters of Seashore Man and African Eve may be downloaded here.
This excerpt is an A4 file in PDF format of about 1 Mb.

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Denis Montgomery journeyed throughout Africa on business and vacation and to research historical places for forty years, and he recorded his fascination with the continent of his birth, its history and geography. These journeys allowed the accumulation of varied insights into the culture, lifestyles and evolution of mankind. Frequent sojourn in African wilderness enabled a greater understanding of geography in its grandest meaning.

Of Irish descent from both parents, he was born in South Africa in 1934 into a pioneering colonial family and has lived and worked in several parts of Africa, in England and Brazil. He retired to rural Suffolk, England, in 1998, but continues his travels.

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