AUTHOR ’ S NOTE
The Book Of Steadman
By Lloyd Igane
Ladies , Gentlemen , other genders in between , waheshimiwa , watukufu , all protocols observed , I salute you .
A few weeks ago , I sort of made an ass of myself . I was to make a speech - at gunpoint - at one of those Roger Steadman parties to launch his biography In Good Stead . As author of the book , mine was to tell the gathered gliteratti lounging around in Roger ’ s plush gardens about my process and somehow give them a reason to buy the book . Easy , right ?
Although I had put on my smartest working idiot ’ s uniform and been fashionably late for the function as I tried to get the speech right , one look at the sea of wise old faces staring expectantly up at me is all it took to get me fumbling for familiar words . These were big guns in Kenyan industry , the likes of Martin Dunford , Mike Eldon , Anne Wanjui , Anthony Nzuki , Rose Kimotho , Patricia Ithau , Sheena Roundturner nee
McKenzie , George Muhoho - yes , that George , Joe Otin , Eng . Philip Okundi , Ndirangu wa Maina , Anne Kabinga , Linus Gitahi , Dick Omondi , Mutua Mutua , Isaac Ratemo , Bernard Njoroge , Lenny Ng ’ ang ’ a , Dennis Awori , William Kalombo , Bharat Thakrar , and many others . This , at last , was my defining moment ; my 15 minutes of fame ; and I was about to ruin it .
Luckily a familiar joke came to mind . Heard about the man who gave the shortest recorded speech to a roomful of youths … about sex ? Neither had my audience . “ It gives me a lot of pleasure …” he began , and promptly sat down . That got me some laughs , which was good .
After thanking Roger Steadman for letting me stand on his broad shoulders to be there that night and raising a glass to mark his Golden Jubilee of living in Kenya , I reminded all at the party that Roger ’ s service over the years truly stood the marketing industry in good stead . Which brought us to the title of the book we were launching .
But The Book of Steadman is much broader in scope than the 50 years of Roger ’ s charmed life in Kenya . Those who have read it - like Dick Omondi and Patricia Ithau - say it is a biography like no other ; an easy read . In broad and fine strokes , it paints in words and pictures the trajectory of Roger ’ s life , from the time his parents met to the time he handed over executive control of Ipsos pan Africa to a mzungu called David Somers .
This is the story of an unassuming hero ; a resilient spirit , who sets out at an early age with the notion that the world is his oyster . He would have gone on to live an itinerant ’ s life as an international nomad and marketing party animal , had he not strayed into Kenya and got stuck in paradise as it were for all of 50 human years .
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