Frank Tennant served his National Service in the British Army, where he was seconded to the Somaliland Scouts, a British Colonial Regiment. Returning to the UK, he decided the ideal lifestyle would be to farm in Africa. He studied Agricultural Science with that in mind.

With two other students, he drove through some twenty countries in Africa to 'find somewhere to farm'. But at the halfway mark, he began to realise that Africa was not a place to invest his future.

He ended up on a large sheep station in the Australian outback where he wrote an account of the Bumble Expedition. He became immersed in other ventures and never bothered to attempt publication.

Early in 2021, he came across the draft of the book.

On reading the draft, he realised the changes that had taken place in the sixty years since driving through Africa were immense and the experiences and the description of the people and their views were of considerable interest. He considered it could well be of interest to others.