Amazing. We’ve had to wait till 2009 for an industrial strength coffee table book on Lamu.

There have been many on the colourful and traditional lives of the Maasai and the Samburu, and many more on Kenya’s game parks and wildlife.

Others on Kenya or on the broader region have included coverage of Lamu, but it is only now that this enchanted island (as the title describes it) reveals itself on anywhere near such a scale.

At the beginning of the book we see pictures from the last century (including some by Wilfred Thesiger), most of which could have been taken yesterday.

But for how much longer will Lamu manage to preserve its heritage?

Currently, the World Heritage status that Lamu has enjoyed since 2001 is at risk.

This is because of extensive acquisitions by wealthy foreigners wanting to make the town their holiday retreat — not to mention local developers.

Also, there is major infrastructure development around a commercial port.

The images start quietly, gently, with hardly a person in frame.

It is only two thirds of the way through that we meet the people of Lamu in any number, and then only for a while.

For this book is more a celebration of style and design, of art and architecture, avoiding the commercial and the obvious.

Nonetheless, Lamu essentially retains its heady aroma, as the images in this book testify.

There are beachfronts at dawn, and photogenic dhows, racing against one another, masted sails at crazy angles, now drifting solo on seas of rich aquamarine or of rippled gold.

There are smooth white walls of ancient elegant buildings, occasionally contrasting with ochre or mahogany features.

And of course, the carved wooden doors.

And there is the bustle of Lamu weddings and the Maulid and cultural festivals.

But a final perhaps surprising section too, is that showing 21st century angular adaptations of traditional Lamu styles.

This book was made possible through funding to the tune of $60,000 by Total (K), Bamburi Cement, the Alliance Francaise, The Ford Foundation and various foreign embassies.

The idea for the book came up in a conversation three years ago between Kenya’s Tourism Minister Najib Balala — then Heritage Minister; George Abungu — a former director of the National Museums of Kenya and David Coulson — a renowned photographer and chairman of the Trust for African Rock Art.

Balala asked Coulson if he could gather a team of photographers who would be prepared to produce an illustrated book on Lamu for Swahili Heritage, a non- governmental organisation that works at preserving and celebrating that rich culture.

Coulson brought on board Angela Fisher and Carol Beckwith, who between them as good as own the business of photographing African people and cultures. Nigel Pavitt, a renowned photographer, was also roped in.

Abungu was a natural choice for providing the write-up, given his involvement with the Unesco World Heritage Centre, and with Lamu itself as a Unesco World Heritage site.

He worked with his wife Lorna m consisted of The renowned quartet of photographers, whose 250 images fill the heavyweight tome, have spent a lifetime immortalising Africa’s living—– but fast-disappearing — past.

who knows a lot about Kenya’s coastal heritage, and Ahmed Sheikh, whose poetic sketches add charming verbal colour to the images.

The photography tea

It was good to see pictures of the house built by that late Great White Hunter, Bunny Allen.

Some years ago my wife and I stayed with this larger than life character and his wife, as a wedding present from his son.

It was then that Allen told us how he once travelled to Ethiopia to rescue the woman he later married.

“From whom did you rescue her?” we asked on cue. “From her husband, of course,” replied Bunny with a twinkle, by then already in his late eighties.

That’s Lamu, with its pure white surfaces and the endless colourful (and off-colour) tales that shelter behind them.

It’s a photographer’s paradise, with photogenic come-hithers at every turn.

For this quartet of lens-masters, it must have been a joyous adventure.

And for we who leaf through their work, a great pleasure.

The wordsmiths too are passionate about preserving cultural heritage.

Carol Beckwith’s meticulous line drawings introduce delicate decoration alongside the photographs and the text — all integrated into Barney Wan’s customary elegant design.

So it’s less than surprising that Lamu succeeds in enveloping us in the unique and calming atmosphere of the island.

More recently Pavitt assembled treasured old pictures for his Kenya, A Country in the Making 1880 – 1940.