The Diary of Edwin Clarke: A police officer in Rhodesia, 1906

The journal of a young British colonial-era police officer in remote southern Africa. In 1901 Edwin Gulliver Clarke left behind his comfortable, middle-class life as the son of a bank manager to become a mounted trooper in the British South Africa Police in the new African colony of Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe.

When he died in 1955, Clarke bequeathed a unique handwritten diary of his service in 1906, which is published here over 110 years later. For the first time, read his account of horseback safari across miles of unspoiled African landscape in rural Matabeleland, stalking and hunting big game, and tracking down criminals.

Vivid diary entries bring to life a cast of characters: gold prospectors, legendary farmers and settlers telling yarns around a camp fire at night, friendly African chiefs, and Clarke’s fellow police officers. There is tragedy too – sickness, brutality and violent death, all set against a fascinating journal of the daily life of a colonial police officer in a remote African district in 1906.

The Part-Time War: Recollections of the terrorist war in Rhodesia

The Part Time War is a book that reminisces on life in 1970’s Rhodesia, fighting a full blown terrorist war on a part time basis. The highs, the lows, the camaraderie and humour are all included.

It gives an insight into the life of an ordinary civilian removed from the comforts and security of everyday life and thrust into the dangers and stresses of a war situation. If one was deemed reasonably fit, every male up to the age of fifty was required to serve in one of the security units for blocks of time during the year. Training was minimal and disruption to work and family life was inevitable. It made life for adult males in Rhodesia during the conflict very strange to say the least. Rod Wells was born in Warwick, England and emigrated as a child, in 1955, to Southern Rhodesia where he was brought up and, after leaving Ellis Robins High School, trained as a motor mechanic. In 1967 he met his future wife, Vi, whilst working for a motor racing firm in England. After returning to Rhodesia in 1968 they set up their own garage business with great expectations for the future. Unfortunately, events within the country were to change with the onset of the terrorist war and, after three years of military commitment with the British South Africa Police, and the conflict escalating, the decision was made to close the business. After this, with their two young children’s futures in mind, the decision was made to leave the country.

A Place Called Charlie Tango

Deep in the arid heart of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia's terrorist-infested bushveld, Chitangwe Base Camp lay dust-choked and desolate in the blinding white glare of the African midday sun. An exhausted silence hung over everything. Chalmers suddenly felt very alone and ill-prepared for what he feared might lie ahead.

Little could he imagine then just what horrors were about to unfold in the weeks that followed as the chilling cat-and-mouse conflict escalated with the coming of the rains.

What happens when Chalmers and his mutinous band of unseasoned ‘soldiers’ finally come face-to-face with their ruthless enemy? Can they take on the impossible and still hope to survive? Their gut-wrenching struggle to the death forms the nail-biting and dramatic climax to this extraordinarily brutal yet ultimately heart-warming real-life drama.

The Rhodesian Bush War and the triumph of evil

Set in the late 1970’s during the long drawn-out years of the Bush War, A Place Called Charlie Tango paints an unforgettable picture of the unrelenting horror and constant danger that all those who lived here faced each and every day while defending what the rest of the world had abandoned. Yet through all the bloodshed, fear and intrigue, the elemental and starkly beautiful backdrop of the vast African landscape itself shines vividly throughout this compelling autobiographical novel by Charles Beaumont.

The Valley of the Shadow (Murdoch's Africa Book 1)

‘The Valley of the Shadow’ is Robert Burslem’s bestselling African adventure. Highly acclaimed the stand-alone story is inspired by real life events.

In the 70’s a disgraced Scottish soldier is exiled to Africa to fight somebody else’s war and comes up against the personification of evil. In a web of international intrigue, deceit and violence he finds love… at a cost.

Fear No Evil (Murdoch's Africa Book 2)

In 1963 the Apartheid South African Government partners with Israel to secretly build and test nuclear weapons.

Twenty-five years later Apartheid is coming to an end. Nelson Mandela is to be released from prison and South Africa is to get its first black majority government. But the United States, suspecting the secret weapons programme, is determined to ensure that a ‘free’ South Africa is nuclear free.

In Botswana Duncan Murdoch, his African wife Elizabeth and their children are struggling. They stumble across the South African nuclear weapons programme with tragic consequences.

Britain, maintaining a watchful eye on its South African investments, becomes aware that a rogue faction is attempting to take control of the nuclear weapons.

In a fast-paced action-packed adventure the CIA, MI6 and Duncan Murdoch race to track down and take control of the nuclear arsenal.

The story is inspired by fact. The events, places and timings are correct and, to this day, it is thought by many that one of South Africa’s nuclear weapons is still unaccounted for!

Worth Their Colours (105th Foot. Wessex Regiment Book 1)

A novel set in the early years of the Napoleonic Wars, using the actual events as they happened. The year is 1805 and Nelson has robbed the French of their way across The Channel, but Napoleon’s Grande Armee’ remains a potent threat. Faced with this, the Secretary of State for War gathered all possible forces to resist invasion. This included sweeping up into Detachment Battalions the surviving soldiers of various minor disasters and combining them together with a very much less than re-assuring mixture of recruits. This is the story of one such Battalion, a collection of veterans, social outcasts, untried Militia, volunteers, criminals and poachers who march and train together until the desperate British military deem them fit to be part of General Stuart’s army that invades Calabria to support one the few allies Britain has, the King of Naples. There they confront a veteran French army on the plains of Maida for the first set piece confrontation between the armies of Great Britain and Napoleon’s all-conquering forces. At the campaign’s end, as a Detachment Battalion, usually considered as inherently inferior, they could be broken up and sent to reinforce under strength, well established, Regiments. Or, perhaps, by their own deeds and prowess, they deserve to be recognised as a numbered Regiment, and be““Worth Their Colours.”

Close to the Colours (105th Foot. The Prince of Wales Own Wessex Regimen Book 2)

This story, sequel to “Worth Their Colours” is also set within actual history – fictional characters in actual events. On 2nd May 1808 Napoleon Bonaparte imprisoned the Spanish Royal Family and proclaimed his brother Joseph the new King of Spain. The Spanish rose up at the insult and so, with Spain in foment, the British Government saw the opportunity for a British army to once again set foot on European soil. Therefore, in August 1808, a small force led by General Sir Arthur Wellesley came ashore through the pounding surf of Mondego Bay to land on the Portuguese coast. This is the story of that army, how they confronted the hitherto victorious French, beginning with the very first exchange of fire at Brilos and then the success of Rolica and the stunning victory of Vimeiro. Wellington was recalled as being signatory to the controversial Convention of Cintra, and only then came the advance into Spain under General Sir John Moore. This incursion soon turned into a winter retreat of appalling hardship, but the army turned and stood at Corunna to inflict one last defeat on their pursuers, before returning home. The tale is told through the eyes of the characters of the fictional 105th Foot, The Prince of Wales Own Wessex Regiment, but all the events are actual history.

The Plains of Talavera (105th Foot. Wessex Regiment Book 3)

In January 1809 Moore's evacuated army arrived back in England, but by April another, this time under Sir Arthur Wellesley, was returned to Lisbon to renew the war with the forces of Napoleon. This army was 23,000 strong but at the time of Wellesley returning, the French had a quarter of a million men in the Peninsula and so he had very much to rely on Spanish Armies to occupy the bulk of the French occupiers and also on the growing strength of the Spanish and Portuguese guerrillas, ably led by El Capucino and El Charro. In March of 1809, the French had captured the Portuguese port of Oporto and so Wellesley began there, to recapture this Portuguese second city and here begins another chapter in the story of the 'The Rag and Bone Boys'. The 105th Foot, The Prince of Wales Own Wessex Regiment.

To the Battle Honour of Maida, first on their Colours from the previous campaign of 1808, have now been added those of Rolica, Vimeiro and Coruna. They march with Wellesley to play a major role in crossing the River Douro to take Oporto and then on to Talavera to support the Spanish, from which they have to withdraw after this costly victory and then suffer a dreadful retreat where their starvation was worse than that of Moore's retreat in the previous year. After a year of inactivity, during which Officers could return home, the Summer of 1810 sees Wellesley again on the offensive, with new Allies, the Portuguese. This campaign includes the Battle of Busaco which was followed by the retreat back to the Lines of Torres Vedras, from which they finally advance when the French withdraw, having suffered starvation themselves. Throughout all the victories and retreats, the members of the 105th, both Rank and Commissioned, live, marry, fight and survive, through disputes, deep friendship and the perils of dreadful conflict. As usual, Henry Carr, now a full Major, must endure the ongoing personal feuds with the same old enemies, but support arrives, as usual, from his own friends and allies.

The Walls of Badajoz (105th Foot, The Prince of Wales Wessex Regiment Book 4)

The twelve months between March 1811 and March 1812 was the time of decision for the Peninsular War, when Napoleon swelled the armies of Marshalls Soult and Marmont with French veterans, this with the aim of ridding Spain and Portugal of the tiresome British once and for all. As a consequence, during this period the Allied army under the Duke of Wellington suffered more casualties than all the other years of the war combined. Within this twelve months, came the most severe encounters of the whole campaign, the dreadful battles of Albuera and Fuentes d’Onoro, then the two sieges Cuidad Rodrigo and Badajoz, each appalling for their hardships, the severity of the assaults and their aftermath. The story begins with the advance through Santarem after the winter inactivity, harrying the French North and East and ends at the walls of Badajoz. In the interim months, conflict between the two sides is almost weekly, either skirmishing, minor battles or simply standing and staring, one side waiting, the other deciding, either to attack or to hold their ground.

Throughout all, the 105th Foot, the Prince of Wales Own Wessex Regiment, march on, the ‘Rag and Bone Boys’, always either in the van or stood tense and ready as first reserve. Within their number, their characters live, fight, suffer and die; Henry Carr, now an experienced Major, Senior Major O’Hare and Lieutenant-Colonel Lacey, both now feeling the strain of four years of continuous campaigning. The men in the ranks maintain their bonds of comradeship, despite the dangers, the hardships, overbearing Officers and the ill-tempered characters of some amongst them. Their Followers support, to both feed, mend and tend as and when their men return to them, either just hungry, sometimes badly wounded or sometimes not at all. Thus the 105th continues both as a family and as a formidable fighting unit, one of Wellington’s most trusted, which brings extra duties and accompanying dangers.

However, old rivalries and jealousies continue, not least from Captain Lucius Tavender, especially when Carr’s younger brother, Willoughby, joins the 16th Light Hussars as a Cornet. Elsewhere, Lord Frederick Templemere, now a Politician and a paroled prisoner of war, has his own and very different, furrow to plough.>>9430