Search results for ""author neville herrington""

The author’s story is a fresh, houmorous and poignant journey which starts in 1964 with the imprisonment of Mandela, followed by the oppressive years of apartheid to the new dawn of a democratic South Africa and beyond. It is not written through the lens of a political analyst, but from the perspective of an average white male citizen who was born and bred in the country, and will most likely die in it. The narrative which encompasses his years as an SABC journalist, Civic Leader, University lecturer, playwright and TV documentary producer, plays out against the backdrop of a changing political landscape and avoids bitterness as a defining emotion when speaking about the many failures that have limited this country’s progress from taking its proper place in the world.

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Looks at a young man, straight out of school, who fought in the East African campaign in 1916. It outlines the depiction of the equatorial environment and the health challenging conditions under which the war was fought. Is a gripping story of war, intrigue, romance, humour and spiritual awakening. The year is 1916, and, at age 19 Ritchie is launched into a world conflict that he doesn’t fully comprehend. It is a time when the opposing sides in World War 1 are European countries that have drawn on their colonies to assist in their continental dispute. Ritchie volunteers for service in East Africa, and, although excited by the prospects of a great adventure, soon begins to feel like a pawn in a game of chess that is being manipulated by external forces to their own advantage. The intolerable conditions of the East African campaign, where more soldiers died of dysentery and malaria than of battle wounds, revives memories of his traumatic experience as a 5-year old when he and his Irish-born mother were incarcerated in an Anglo Boer War British concentration camp. It was to be the strong bond between mother and son, along with her indomitable spirit that kept him alive in an environment of insurmountable human suffering, disease and hunger. But it was a bond that was to be sorely tested and ultimately broken by circumstances which come back to haunt him as he retreats inwards after a near-death experience during the war in German East Africa. On his return from the war, he sets out to discover the truth about his mother that leads him into a dangerous encounter with kidnappers and criminals, and a liaison with a woman who was indirectly responsible for his mother’s downfall and demise.

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Growing up in 'White' South Africa is a delightful journey back into the past that brings alive an era that should resonate with those who lived through it, and fascinate those who didn’t. The author captures the sounds, smells, nuances, events and special characteristics of a post war age that remain etched in his memory. His poignant recounting of the period of his youth against the background of a world that was rapidly undergoing change both at home and abroad is imbued with touches of humour, that comes with a retrospective view of the follies of youth. The journey moves from the secure environment of his early youth to adventures in the Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) bushveld after leaving school, and then onto London at the height of the Beat era in the late 50s, eventually returning to South Africa and university life in the swinging 60s, where his membership of an eccentric literary sect called the Druids contrasts with his political activities as an executive member of the student representative council and NUSAS that challenged the draconian laws of apartheid. Threading through all this are the many romantic relationships that earned him, much to his consternation, the reputation of being somewhat of a Casanova until he meets the girl with whom he is destined to continue the next stage of his life’s journey. The underlying subtext is a political narrative of a divided country where its people are systematically racially categorized and separated into allotted group areas, and how the author’s social and political awareness develops and changes during his growing up years as the apartheid system becomes increasingly harsh and evil. From being a purely passive observer and beneficiary of a privileged minority group, he begins to take an active stand in opposing the system.

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The Irish Boer Woman is the second volume of the Brigid O'Meara trilogy (the first part was England Wants Your Gold printed in 2015) that follows the life of an adventurous young Irish woman who is drawn into the intrigues and violence of the Jameson Raid of 1895, and later incarcerated in a British concentration camp during the Anglo Boer War for assisting active Boer commandos. As an Irish nationalist, Brigid finds herself in the midst of a clash of cultures and worldviews. She is drawn into the conflict of the Anglo Boer War by identifying and entering the struggle of the Boers of the Transvaal to retain their independence, putting her into direct conflict with British authorities representing an expanding global empire. Adding to her emotional turmoil is her romantic involvement with a British Uitlander, who is facing charges of high treason by the Transvaal Boer Government. Through the characters, the reader enters the harrowing realities of a war in which the two Boer Republics mobilized every man between 16 and 60 with no uniform, no money and no formal training to take on the might of the British Empire.

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This story of a middle-class white South African family unfolds between the years 1939 and 1964 - a transformative period in South Africa's political landscape. It is told through the eyes and experiences of the younger son and his rite of passage into a country of racial segregation that gradually opens his eyes to the many injustices imposed upon the majority of the country's population, coupled with a realization that his white privileges are sustained at the brutal expense of others.

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