The book is subtitled The True Story of an English Gentleman and His African Dream, and was published in London in 1999 by Viking Penguin.

The Africa House is an account of the life of soldier, pioneer white settler, politician and supporter of African independence Stewart Gore-Browne in relation to the building of his estate Shiwa Ngandu in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia.

[2] The Independent called the book a 'marvellous story' but criticized Lamb for 'the maddening device of putting feelings into people's minds' as well as stating that many of the pictures were 'printed too small to be easily identifiable'.

[3] Kirkus Reviews wrote that the book was 'a cautionary but sympathetic story of a man obsessed, though less perniciously than most'.

Publishers Weekly gave a mixed review for The Africa House, saying the book was 'engaging and well crafted, although Lamb's attempts at dramatizing her subjects' emotional lives sometimes read like a romance novel, and her narrow focus on the house's history obscures the wider context of waning British empire'.