A biography of a Special Forces soldier who battled the forces of Mugabe and Nkomo, earning a reputation as a military maestro.   During the West’s great transition into the post-colonial age, the country of Rhodesia refused to succumb quietly, and throughout the 1970s, fought back almost alone against Communist-supported elements that it did not believe would deliver proper governance. During this long war, many heroes emerged, but none more skillful and courageous than Capt. Darrell Watt of the Rhodesian SAS, who placed himself at the tip of the spear in the deadly battle to resist the forces of Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo.   It is difficult to find another soldier’s story to equal Watt’s in terms of time spent on the field of battle and challenges faced. Even by the lofty standards of the SAS and Special Forces, one has to look far to find anyone who can match his record of resilience and valor in the face of such daunting odds and with resources so paltry. A bush-lore genius, blessed with uncanny instincts and an unbridled determination, he had no peers as a combat-tracker—and there was plenty of competition. The Rhodesian theater was a fluid and volatile one, in which he performed in almost every imaginable fighting role: as an airborne shock-trooper leading camp attacks, long range reconnaissance operator, covert urban operator, sniper, saboteur, seek-and-strike expert, and, in the final stages, as a key figure in mobilizing an allied army in neighboring Mozambique. After twelve years in the cauldron of war, his cause slipped from beneath him, however, and Rhodesia gave way to Zimbabwe.   When the guns went quiet, Watt had won all his battles but lost the war. In this fascinating biography we learn that in his later years, he turned to saving wildlife on a continent where animals are in continued danger, devoting himself to both the fauna and African people he has cared so deeply about. Read more

"Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand history – and then go out and change it." –President Barack Obama   Nelson Mandela was one of the great moral and political leaders of his time: an international hero whose lifelong dedication to the fight against racial oppression in South Africa won him the Nobel Peace Prize and the presidency of his country. After his triumphant release in 1990 from more than a quarter-century of imprisonment, Mandela was at the center of the most compelling and inspiring political drama in the world. As president of the African National Congress and head of South Africa's antiapartheid movement, he was instrumental in moving the nation toward multiracial government and majority rule. He is still revered everywhere as a vital force in the fight for human rights and racial equality.Long Walk to Freedom is his moving and exhilarating autobiography, destined to take its place among the finest memoirs of history's greatest figures. Here for the first time, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela told the extraordinary story of his life -- an epic of struggle, setback, renewed hope, and ultimate triumph. The book that inspired the major motion picture Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Read more

None

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. Read more

Mukiwa opens with Peter Godwin, six years old, describing the murder of his neighbor by African guerillas, in 1964, pre-war Rhodesia. Godwin's parents are liberal whites, his mother a governement-employed doctor, his father an engineer. Through his innocent, young eyes, the story of the beginning of the end of white rule in Africa unfolds. The memoir follows Godwin's personal journey from the eve of war in Rhodesia to his experience fighting in the civil war that he detests to his adventures as a journalist in the new state of Zimbabwe, covering the bloody return to Black rule. With each transition Godwin's voice develops, from that of a boy to a young man to an adult returning to his homeland. This tale of the savage struggle between blacks and whites as the British Colonial period comes to an end is set against the vividly painted background of the myserious world of South Africa. Read more

None

Journalist Peter Godwin has covered wars. As a soldier, he's fought them. But nothing prepared him for the surreal mix of desperation and hope he encountered when he returned to Zimbabwe, his broken homeland. Godwin arrived as Robert Mugabe, the country's dictator for 30 years, has finally lost an election. Mugabe's tenure has left Zimbabwe with the world's highest rate of inflation and the shortest life span. Instead of conceding power, Mugabe launched a brutal campaign of terror against his own citizens. With foreign correspondents banned, and he himself there illegally, Godwin was one of the few observers to bear witness to this period the locals call The Fear. He saw torture bases and the burning villages but was most awed as an observer of not only simple acts of kindness but also churchmen and diplomats putting their own lives on the line to try to stop the carnage. The Fear is a book about the astonishing courage and resilience of a people, armed with nothing but a desire to be free, who challenged a violent dictatorship. It is also the deeply personal and ultimately uplifting story of a man trying to make sense of the country he can't recognize as home. Read more

The Boer War is brewing in South Africa, and the Royal Western Dragoon Guards are bound for the front line. In their ranks is the young subaltern Murdoch Mackinder, the latest in the long line of Mackinders who have, in their time, commanded the Royal Westerns across the whole of the British Empire. Seeing battle for the first time against the Boers, Murdoch quickly and painfully learns that the British Army will need to find new ways of fighting modern wars, as the fear of a major European conflict grows ever stronger. Rising through the ranks of his regiment and gradually becoming its most famous and decorated member, Murdoch also comes to see that much more than courage under fire will be needed to live his life as a soldier, and a man. 'The Regiment' is a brilliantly told story of military life that is rich in adventure and period detail. ‘…told with smooth authenticity’ – Publishers’ Weekly [on Amazon] ‘…military saga covering the years from the Boer War through WW I. Bosoms still heave and legs still flash, but they're background colour in the story of Murdoch Mackinder and his career in the family regiment’ – Kirkus Review ‘Well-researched…Evocative descriptions of scenery and edifices, and exact period dialogue’ – Historical Novels Society [on another of Nicole’s novels, Manu] Christopher Robin Nicole (born 7 December 1930 in Georgetown, British Guiana) is a prolific British writer of over 200 novels and non-fiction books since 1957. He wrote as Christopher Nicole under several pseudonyms including Peter Grange, Andrew York,Robin Cade, Mark Logan, Christina Nicholson, Alison York, Leslie Arlen, Robin Nicholson, C.R. Nicholson, Daniel Adams,Simon McKay, Caroline Gray and Alan Savage. He also wrote under the penname Max Marlow co-authoring with his wife, fellow author Diana Bachmann. Read more

None

This is the story of a simple idea that turned into a global movement. This is the story of parkrun, told for the very first time from the man who started it all.Paul Sinton-Hewitt’s love for running was forged through a difficult childhood. It gave a young boy a sense of freedom and helped him build a life for himself. Years later when he suffered a serious injury that held him back from competitive running, Paul felt he’d lost all purpose in life.That’s when he came up with a simple idea. He would start a weekly time trial run every Saturday morning in his local park. There would be no winners or losers, it would always be free and Paul would be there every week – even on Christmas Day – whether or not anyone else came. Little did he know that from just thirteen runners on that first Saturday, parkrun would grow into a 10 million strong community across five continents. Twenty years on parkrun continues to grow, bringing together people from all walks of life in search of health, happiness and community.Filled with hope and optimism, One Small Step is a powerful affirmation of how coming together in simple ways can change our own lives and might even change the world. Read more

After his father's heart attack in 1984, Peter Godwin began a series of pilgrimages back to Zimbabwe, the land of his birth, from Manhattan, where he now lives. On these frequent visits to check on his elderly parents, he bore witness to Zimbabwe's dramatic spiral downwards into the jaws of violent chaos, presided over by an increasingly enraged dictator. And yet long after their comfortable lifestyle had been shattered and millions were fleeing, his parents refuse to leave, steadfast in their allegiance to the failed state that has been their adopted home for 50 years.Then Godwin discovered a shocking family secret that helped explain their loyalty. Africa was his father's sanctuary from another identity, another world.WHEN A CROCODILE EATS THE SUN is a stirring memoir of the disintegration of a family set against the collapse of a country. But it is also a vivid portrait of the profound strength of the human spirit and the enduring power of love. Read more

The memoirs of former Opposition leader Tony Leon provide a unique glimpse into the political life of South Africa in the democratic era. In incisive, finely focused prose, On the Contrary records Leon's thirteen-year leadership of the Democratic Alliance and its predecessor, the Democratic Party, years in which the party grew from its marginal position on the brink of political extinction into the second largest political force in South Africa. This is an adventure in ideas that involves vivid real people - friends, colleagues and enemies alike. There is new light shed on many of the figures who have shaped modern South Africa, including Nelson Mandela, FW de Klerk and Thabo Mbeki. A trained lawyer, Tony Leon entered Parliament at age 32 at the dawn of South Africa's period of revolution and reform. He actively participated in the constitutional negotiations that led to the birth of the democratic South Africa. Read more

Die dramatiese en boeiende verhaal van die Afrikaners - vol teenstrydige neigings tot vryheid en onderdrukking - in hoogs leesbare styl.Internasionaal-bekende historikus prof. Hermann Giliomee verken die redes vir die Afrikaners se opgee van mag asook hul soms stormagtige verhouding met die ANC en president Zuma.'n Topverkoper wat wyd gereken word as die standaard-werk oor die geskiedenis van Afrikaners in Suid-Afrika. Read more

Frederick Courteney Selous was one of the pre-eminent big game hunters of the nineteenth century. A friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell, he also inspired the novelist H. Rider Haggard to write the Allan Quartermain adventure series. His life was full of adventure, and his book, A Hunter’s Wandering in Africa, is a brilliantly engaging account that takes the reader back in time to the heart of Africa. He records in minute detail the fascinating flora and fauna that he saw around him as he traipsed further and further into this unexplored continent. For nine years he wandering across the lands of central and southern Africa, exploring, hunting and recording what he saw. His account is one of the most fascinating accounts of this great continent in the mid-nineteenth century. Although it may seem contradictory to modern sensibilities, Selous the master-hunter was also a great conservationist who did a great deal to preserve wildlife in Africa and improve our knowledge of some of these spectacular animals. He donated many of the animals that he shot to the Natural History Museum, which has allowed for their scientific study for over a century. He also acknowledged the damage that hunting was having upon wildlife and so after his death the Selous Game Reserve was set up to preserve 19,000 square miles of undisturbed nature. “Selous was a meticulous observer and recorder of nature who often became involved in academic debates involving zoology.” History in Africa “Selous is the most famous hunter in all of Africa.” The American "Since the days of Baldwin there has not been published a book on South African sporting which equals in value and interest the volume brought out by Mr. Selous." Academy “He led a singularly adventurous and fascinating life, with just the right alternations between the wilderness and civilization. He helped spread the borders of his people's land. He added much to the sum of human knowledge and interest.” Theodore Roosevelt. Frederick Courteney Selous was an explorer, military officer, professional hunter and conservationist. He first visited Africa in 1872, at the age of nineteen, and for the next nine years he hunted and explored over the little-known regions north of the Transvaal and south of the Congo Basin. His travels added greatly to the knowledge of the country now known as Zimbabwe. He made valuable ethnological investigations, and throughout his wanderings—often among people who had never previously seen a white man—he maintained cordial relations with the chiefs and tribes, winning their confidence and esteem, notably so in the case of Lobengula. His account of this journey, A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa was first published in 1881. Selous passed away while fighting in World War One at the age of sixty-five in 1917. Read more

The story of the battle for independence from the British Empire in South Africa by “a vivid chronicler of military forces, generals, and wars” (Kirkus Reviews).   The Great Boer War (1899-1902), more properly known as the Great Anglo-Boer War, was one of the last romantic wars, pitting a sturdy, stubborn pioneer people fighting to establish the independence of their tiny nation against the British Empire at its peak of power and self-confidence.   It was fought in the barren vastness of the South African veldt, and it produced in almost equal measure extraordinary feats of personal heroism, unbelievable examples of folly and stupidity, and many incidents of humor and tragedy. Byron Farwell traces the war’s origins; the slow mounting of the British efforts to overthrow the Afrikaners; the bungling and bickering of the British command; the remarkable series of bloody battles that almost consistently ended in victory for the Boers over the much more numerous British forces; political developments in London and Pretoria; the sieges of Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley; the concentration camps into which Boer families were herded; and the exhausting guerrilla warfare of the last few years when the Boer armies were finally driven from the field.  The Great Boer War is a definitive history of a dramatic conflict by the author of Queen Victoria’s Little Wars, “a leading popular military historian” (Publishers Weekly). Read more

Read the book that inspired the Academy Award and Golden Globe winning 2009 film INVICTUS featuring Morgan Freeman and Matt Daymon, directed by Clint Eastwood.Beginning in a jail cell and ending in a rugby tournament—the true story of how the most inspiring charm offensive in history brought South Africa together.After being released from prison and winning South Africa’s first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: use the national rugby team, the Springboks—long an embodiment of white-supremacist rule—to embody and engage a new South Africa as they prepared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that followed not only defied the odds, but capped Mandela’s miraculous effort to bring South Africans together again in a hard-won, enduring bond. Read more

On the 31st of May, 1902, the war in South Africa came to an end after three adventurous years. Now Reitz would join the war in Europe. Following his father’s example, Deneys Reitz refused to accept the terms of the peace treaty and went into exile, on Madagascar. After four years of trials and adventures, Reitz recounts how his former commander, J. C. Smuts, eventually persuaded him to return home to help rebuild their country. A long and troubled process, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War South Africans were further divided by the September 1914 rebellion. Serving alongside Smuts once more, Reitz describes an oft-overlooked theatre of the war as they continued their campaign into Germany’s African Colonies. Continuing immediately from Commando: A Boer Journal of the Boer War, Reitz’s stirring memoir carries him towards the Western Front and the final years of the war, fighting with the British, but not for them. Deneys Reitz (1882-1944) was a Boer solider, lawyer, author and politician. After commanding the 1st Battalion Royal Scots Fusiliers on the Western Front, at the end of the First World War he returned home, later becoming a member of the South African government. Trekking On is the second of three volumes he wrote about his life. Read more

This is the true story of my life in an African country known then as Rhodesia. This memoir chronicles the extraordinary events that took me from a young boy on the farm learning bush skills from my old, Shona teacher to my years in the security forces embroiled in a ferocious bush war. This was a brutal civil war for the very heart and soul of that young nation. The journey also tells of the deep friendships and life-changing experiences that arose during that bloody conflict which pitted the formidable mettle of the Rhodesian armed services, both black and white, against the insurgents. There are some stories of overt and covert operations conducted by the special forces with whom I served that have never been made public. Descriptions are included of the technical and physical survival techniques which we devised and used with great success. Conditions though sometimes demanded that these tactics were formulated “on the spot” – they emphasized the vital importance that empirical experience played in honing these strategies and to adapting them as the war progressed. Interwoven with the accounts of conflict are stories of the many humorous anecdotes that inevitably arose during these times together with descriptions of the beautiful landscapes that I encountered and the rural life of ordinary folk who became swept up in a war which ravaged their way of life. You will get insights of my deep love and understanding of the wilderness and wildlife of that region. Today I work as a Group Leader, leading tours into Africa for those who yen to explore and gain knowledge of the animals, people, terrain and biodiversity of these incredible lands. Read more

From Cabinda in Angola to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania 4 Reconnaissance Regiment conducted numerous clandestine seaborne raids during the Border War. They attacked strategic targets such as oil facilities, transport infrastructure and even Russian ships. All the while 4 Recce's existence and capability was largely kept secret, even within the South African Defence Force.With unparalleled access to previously top secret documents, 50 operations undertaken by 4 Recce, other Special Forces units and the South African Navy are described. The daunting Operation Kerslig (1981), in which an operator died in a raid on a Luanda oil refinery and others were injured, is retold in spine-tingling detail. The book reveals the versatility and effectiveness of this elite unit and also tells of both the successes and failures of its actions. Sometimes missions go wrong, as in Operation Argon (1985) when Captain Wynand Du Toit was captured.This fascinating work will enthrall anyone with an interest in Special Forces operations. Iron Fist from the Sea takes you right to the raging surf, to the adrenalin and fear that is seaborne raiding. Read more