The events of Florence Baker's life read like a novel. Born in the 1840s into an aristocratic family who was murdered in the Hungarian revolution, Florence fled to the Ottoman empire with her nurse. She was next heard of living in a harem, barely in her teens. In 1859 she was presented at auction, and it was in this most unlikely of settings that she met her soulmate Sam Baker, a wealthy English adventurer whose geographic discoveries proved crucial to England's understanding of the African landscape. Saving her from slavery, Sam offered his paramour much more - a life of danger, excitement and passion exploring the uncharted interior of Africa in search of the source of the Nile. Their expedition into the African wilderness was to be no less dramatic than Florence's early life. Sam and Florence were to suffer years of deprivation and conflict with local tribes before their amazing fortitude brought ultimate victory. Sam named the source of the Nile Albert N'yanza, after the Queen's consort.

But a larger challenge awaited them: winning acceptance in polite Victorian society. In this riveting book Pat Shipman brings the redoubtable and unique Florence out from beneath the shadow of her more famous husband. Florence Baker is the story of a remarkable woman, of an extraordinary love affair, but also of the golden age of exploration. Reconstructed through journals, documents, maps and photographs, TO THE HEART OF THE NILE chronicles the life of a tenacious, compassionate and unlikely explorer - a woman who stood alongside some of the toughest men in history to face the unknown.