A Rhodesian Childhood Remembered is a lively account of the author's childhood in Rhodesia during the days of Ian Smith, the highly controversial figure who led the country as it faced an increasingly uncertain future in the 1960s and 1970s. Primarily, the text focuses on the author's life in Rhodesia's capital, Salisbury. Recollections of holidays in neighbouring Mozambique and South Africa are also vividly described, as are the country's landscape and history. The book will appeal to a wide range of readers who wish to know more about Rhodesia's remarkable story and the events that led to its demise.
The memoir of a special forces veteran of the Rhodesian War, with over a hundred photos included. Nothing terrorized Russian and Chinese-backed guerillas fighting Rhodesia’s bush war in the 1970s more than the famed Selous Scouts. The name of the unit struck fear in the hearts of even the most battle-hardened—rather than speak it, they referred to its soldiers simply as Skuzapu, or pickpockets. History has recorded the regiment as being one of the deadliest and most effective killing machines in modern counter-insurgency warfare. In this book, a veteran of the unit shares his stories of childhood in colonial Africa with his British family, documenting a world where Foreign Service employees gathered at “the club” to find company and alcohol, leopards prowled the night, and his mother knew how to use a gun. Eventually he would move to Canada, only to feel drawn back to the continent where he grew up. There he would be recruited into the Selous Scouts, comprised of specially selected black and white soldiers of the Rhodesian army, supplemented with hardcore terrorists captured on the battlefield. Posing as communist guerrillas, members of this elite Special Forces unit would slip silently into the night to seek out insurgents in a deadly game of hide-and-seek played out between gangs and counter-gangs in the harsh and unforgiving landscape of the African bush. By the mid-1970s, the Selous Scouts had begun to dominate Rhodesia’s battle space. Working in conjunction with the elite airborne assault troops of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, the Selous Scouts accounted for an extraordinarily high proportion of enemy casualties. Not content with restricting themselves to hunting guerrillas inside Rhodesia, they began conducting external vehicle-borne assaults against camps situated deep inside neighboring countries. Recounting his experiences while surviving in this cauldron of battle, while also relating with dry wit the day-to-day details and absurdities of the world that surrounded him, Timothy Bax provides a rare look at this time and place.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A worthy heir to Isak Dinesen and Beryl Markham, Alexandra Fuller shares visceral memories of her childhood in Africa, and of her headstrong, unforgettable mother. “This is not a book you read just once, but a tale of terrible beauty to get lost in over and over.”—Newsweek “By turns mischievous and openhearted, earthy and soaring . . . hair-raising, horrific, and thrilling.”—The New Yorker Though it is a diary of an unruly life in an often inhospitable place, Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is suffused with Fuller’s endearing ability to find laughter, even when there is little to celebrate. Fuller’s debut is unsentimental and unflinching but always captivating. In wry and sometimes hilarious prose, she stares down disaster and looks back with rage and love at the life of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary time. From 1972 to 1990, Alexandra Fuller—known to friends and family as Bobo—grew up on several farms in southern and central Africa. Her father joined up on the side of the white government in the Rhodesian civil war, and was often away fighting against the powerful black guerilla factions. Her mother, in turn, flung herself at their African life and its rugged farm work with the same passion and maniacal energy she brought to everything else. Though she loved her children, she was no hand-holder and had little tolerance for neediness. She nurtured her daughters in other ways: She taught them, by example, to be resilient and self-sufficient, to have strong wills and strong opinions, and to embrace life wholeheartedly, despite and because of difficult circumstances. And she instilled in Bobo, particularly, a love of reading and of storytelling that proved to be her salvation. Alexandra Fuller writes poignantly about a girl becoming a woman and a writer against a backdrop of unrest, not just in her country but in her home. But Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is more than a survivor’s story. It is the story of one woman’s unbreakable bond with a continent and the people who inhabit it, a portrait lovingly realized and deeply felt. Praise for Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight “Riveting . . . [full of] humor and compassion.”—O: The Oprah Magazine “The incredible story of an incredible childhood.”—The Providence Journal
Priscilla Musonda has no idea how she survived such a hard life, but she knows why. The survivor of a lifetime of sexual abuse, she has grown to serve as a beacon for other child victims. In Stolen Childhood, she shares chilling, detailed accounts of her life in Zambia as the sexual slave of her father. The abuse began when she was just five years old, and as a result, her relatives shunned her and predicted that she would never marry. She struggled to complete her education as the nightmare continued. As a teen, she was forced to marry her own father, a polygamist with three other wives. She bore him four childrenwho have also been shunned by her family. Desperate, she ran away to live on the streets. Her life was grim, but not as grim as the future they predicted for her. But Priscilla is a survivor, not a victim. She dreams of building a sanctuary, school, and psychosocial centre in Zambia. She shares her story with strong language and imagery, to help the reader truly understand what she went through. She wants to do everything she can to get others to take the claims of children seriously. Ten percent of the proceeds from the sale of her story will go to benefit the work of PSHAF.
Susan Smith's affair with Lionel Perelman began when they met at the Springfield Military Hospital in South Africa during the Second World War. After the war ended, they got married and Lionel completed his training in psychiatry at the Maudsley Hospital. The Perelmans sailed back to Africa in 1952 to start a new life in the British colony of Southern Rhodesia. Their daughter Charlotte was born in 1955.Charlie Comins tells the story of her childhood, growing up in the grounds of one of the largest mental hospitals in southern Africa. Though things she sees, hears and struggles to understand are presented as 'regular ways of treating crazy people', Charlie has doubts about her father's work. Blue Remembered Sky is a case study of power, prejudice and subterfuge on a personal as well as a national and international level."e;This is a profoundly thought-provoking book about truth-seeking, healing and freedom."e; Lucy Johnstonehttps://www.ccomins-blueskybook.com
Tea, Scones, and Malaria is the phenomenal true account of one girl's extraordinary upbringing in the rough and feral bushveld of 1950s and 60s Rhodesia. Moving from one makeshift camp to the next, the family follows Dad, a bridge builder for the government, deep into the heart of elephant and cheetah country."We ran barefoot in the bush, and swam in crocodile-infested rivers. We shared our camps with snakes, scorpions, and jerrymunglums. There was no electricity, no hospitals, and no schools in the bush. How I survived it all, I will never know."Hilarious, touching, raw, and deeply honest, this memoir records the journey from child to teenager to woman against the backdrop of a vanishing world, as Rhodesia begins its long and tumultuous transition into the independent country of Zimbabwe.
This very day, coming charging towards the presses like a rhino heading for the last croissant, is a book by Robin Walker. Robin is Tom Sharpe mixed with a dose of Montgomery of Alamein and lightly drizzled with essence of Alexander McCall Smith. The book, whose title is Last Orders at the Changamire Arms, tells the story of the characters he knew during the dying days of Rhodesia. It is witty, wonderfully crafted, brilliantly observed and very, very moreish.
