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Isaya Mukirane's unilateral declaration of independence and defiant creation of an armed kingdom was not recognized by Uganda. Stacey was invited in 1963 by Milton Obote, Uganda's Prime Minister, to try to help settle the revolt. In 1967 Mukirane died and was succeeded by his son, Charles Wesley Mumbere.

read an extract: A kingdom comes

The Rwenzururu rebel Kingdom was to rule the inner mountains for 20 years, defying Uganda and Congo alike. There followed a stormy campaign for formal recognition, cut across by guerrilla movements, each with their own agenda, sponsored by Uganda's hostile neighbours seeking to exploit the impenetrability of the forested massif. Worst of these was the ADF, 'Alliance for Democratic Freedom', which for four-and-a-half years emptied the mountains of their highland population.

read an extract: A Bakonzo environmental forum

The end of hostilities in the mountains was marked by Tom Stacey's ascent in 2001 to the snowbound heights at 16,000 feet with his Bakonzo companions. To quote him: 'In 2001, the Government deemed the eastern flanks of Ruwenzori to be free of the scourge of guerrilla forces, visitors would be permitted to re-enter and to climb into the heights again, to research the upper territory's 15 unique species of mammals, the 25 unique reptiles, the 18 unique birds, the fantastical giant vegetation, and score upon score of strictly Ruwenzori insects, mosses, lichens, for the first time since the rebel invasion of 1996 and the invaders' flight into the highlands.

read an extract: The roots of identity

The Mountains of the Moon stretch about 80 miles long and 30 miles wide. They peak at 16,763 feet, and are rarely visible because of the mists and clouds that enshroud them. Unlike most mountains in east Africa, they are not of volcanic origin but are a vast block of the earth's crust which was gradually thrust upwards by huge tectonic pressures, carrying with it plants and animals into a unique biosphere. 'Giantism,' writes Tom Stacey, 'became the route to survival for the plant species which, like Jurassic Saurians, dominate the savage terrain - whereas the solution for fungi became miniaturisation.'

This land is vast and varied: tropical rain forest, a belt of bamboos, a belt of giant heathers, extensive highland bogs, lost lakes, forests of helichrysums, and the astonishing giantism of all surviving species, until the raw rock and glaciered heights, crowned by Stanley Plateau and Margherita Peak, quell all growth. Countless torrential streams descend to unite as major rivers - ultimately feeding the Nile's remotest headwaters.