Books

Rhodesian Reads

Jake the Last by Colin Payne

Jake the Last by Colin Payne

If rhinos could talk, would we listen?

On the plains of the Serengeti, Jake the black rhinoceros is beginning to realize that his idyllic life is under threat.

Jake the Last is about poaching from the inside out. The author has given the animals a voice that explains this ever present threat to wild life and it’s impact on the environment. Sometimes very funny, occasionally sad and always something to think about.

Jake the Last is a story for all.

About Colin Payne

Colin Payne is a retired farm manager living on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, England. He was born in West Middlesex Hospital in Brentford and is the second youngest of five children. Colin’s family emigrated to Bulawayo in what was then Southern Rhodesia, where he was raised and educated.

In January 1955, Colin started his educational journey at Hillside Kindergarten, being part of the first intake at the new building on Cecil Avenue. He later attended Christian Brothers College and wrote his GCE’s at Hamilton High School before serving a five-year apprenticeship on The Bulawayo Chronicle, where he qualified as a compositor-typesetter. Colin also worked as a freelance sports and arts reporter and . . . a singer in a rock ‘n roll band ! Readers will remember the amazing fund raiser he played with Martin Patrick (R.I.P.) back in 2012 !

 

Then, on a visit to Kenya in 2016 he noticed that horn and tusk poaching was blatant and systemic. Colin felt that although the facts might speak for themselves, the real story was beyond the statistics and headlines. 

Jake the Last is that real story

Click here to learn more

Timot - Anecdotes from the African Wildnerness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Timot by by Frans Bijsterveld and Tim Braybrooke 

Make no mistake, Timot’s world was often fraught with hidden dangers where not everyone returned home in one piece. A colleague was killed by a lion, another mauled by a leopard and yet another gored by a buffalo. And then of course, there was the bush war to contend with. Luck, however, was on Timot’s side. He was the real deal in the world of National Parks and wildlife conservation in Rhodesia. When only 28 and with a young wife and two small sons, Tim Braybrooke became the youngest warden in the country, in a remote, undeveloped game park on the Mozambique border. It was teeming with aggressive elephant and far away from civilisation, but by the time he left, he and his team had done a great job. They all went on to make their mark in the country’s national parks, and some, like Timot, set up their own successful safaris. Timot was born in Salisbury and eventually went to Plumtree School, where he met his friend-for-life, Storm Stenslunde. What they got up to and got away with at such a young age is the stuff of legend.

Proceeds are for the ZPSF.

The book is available at:

Click here to learn more about Timot

 

 

Rhode's Ghost

 

Rhodes’ Ghost by Duncan Clarke

At around 800 pp in Softback, and also available in Kindle form, Rhodes’ Ghost is a detailed ‘historical autobiography’ about Cecil Rhodes where from death and the grave the founder of Rhodesia ‘surveys’ all that came before – the San, native empires on the savannah, the pre-Rhodesians and pioneers, contesing parties in the Great Game for Zambesia – Kruger’s Afrikaners, the Portuguese, Germans and British – along with both Ndebele dynasties, the war of 1893 and rebellions in 1896-97, and the transition from feudalism to modernity in the land between the Limpopo and Zambezi.

Rhodes reflects on his life as it was lived, to answer biographers, scribes and literary critics, its modern advocates and historians too, who have charged him with acts, claims, and sins of commission or omission, in a plethora of books, text, films, documentaries, satire and poetry. With 16 hand-drawn Illustrations, Sketches and Maps, a detailed essay on Bibliography and Historiography, plus original insights on each of Rhodes’ seven journeys to Rhodesia, the last train to burial in Bulawayo, Selous, the Jameson Raid, the Groote Schuur library he curated, with chronologies on Zambesia, Mzilikazi and Lobengula. On Amazon worldwide now, including Australia.

Click here to purchase your copy

 

National Parks and Wildlife Management

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

National Parks and Wildlife Management by Michael Bromwich

This book relates the hitherto untold story of the Department of National Parks and Wild Life Management in Rhodesia and early Zimbabwe. A unique historic, factual and anecdotal account, it tells of the country’s founding fathers and their foresight regarding wild life conservation through into the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s. Dispersed throughout are personal accounts and anecdotes – many humorous, others seemingly impossible that link a team of great men and women, both black and white, by a common thread of camaraderie, integrity and loyalty to the country, and the well-being of its wildlife.

A feature of this book is the chapter entitled Rhino Wars, a hard-hitting account that will open the eyes of many. Regular and covert anti-poaching operations in the lower Zambezi Valley and elsewhere took the war to the poachers, buying time for capture units to move some 400 black rhino to conservancies and Intensive Protection Zones. Thanks to untiring efforts by a handful of dedicated men, there are still black and white rhino in Zimbabwe today.

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So Far & So Good
So Far & So Good by A book crammed with
humour and heartache,
adventure and industry,
combat and love By
Denis Petmezaki
nkosi22@bigpond.com

 

On Kalahari Sands
Diaries of Botswana days by Anne Moore.
chura@tpg.com.au

 

Tatenda by Anne Moore
Reminiscences of the Zimbabwe Bush by Anne Moore
chura@tpg.com.au

 

Nyanga’s Rich Heritage by Rob Burrett and Edone Ann Logan.

Launched by the British Embassy in partnership with the National Trust of Zimbabwe (NTZ)to inform Zimbabweans and overseas visitors of the diverse natural and social heritage of Nyanga to encourage a sense of pride and desire to preserve this legacy.

 

Blackjacks book

BLACKJACKS.

528 Pages and about 80 photos.

The author Tony Illman carefully and vividly describes the journey of his family and the people who witnessed and experienced the Rhodesian Bush War in this compelling memoir BLACKJACKS. He describes the people living in a small community during the armed conflict, and how people rebuilt their lives after the end of the war. Set in Rhodesia or modern-day Zimbabwe and Australia BLACKJACKS is about love, hate and humour. It is about determination and desperation, life and death, and friendships and community spirit. For the author the book has been a huge emotional journey.

For more details about his book and to purchase it go to xlibris.com or any online bookstore or just phone Tony here in Perth on 0409 684 014. I have copies to sell for $30.00

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Timot - Anecdotes from the African Wildnerness

Timot by Frans Bijsterveld and Tim Braybrooke

Blackjacks

Blackjacks by Tony Illman

Jake the Last by Colin Payne

Jake the Last by Colin Payne