THE AUTHOR
The author was born in South Africa in 1942 and spent his
teens of the 1950’s on a small farm just outside Naboomspruit in the Northern
Province of South Africa, during which time he came to love the sounds, smells
and sights of the bush. He did his basic training with 1st Special Service
Battalion in Bloemfontein and has happy memories of army life in the bush. He
also spent twenty-five years training in the martial arts.
During his work in a steel mill and underground in a diamond
mine, he yearned to be back in the bush.
THE BOOK
By 1902 the British war against South Africa, the so called “Boer
War” was over. Paul Kruger, attempted to negotiate a deal with Holland and
Germany for arms and ammunition in exchange for gold. The arms and ammunition
reached the port of Lorenco Marques but the gold, sent by Kruger, went missing.
Into this chaos of the aftermath of the war, with men, woman
and children trying to make it back to the farms, Gideon Barron, an Irishman
born in South Africa is accused of helping to steal the gold. Wounded, he
escapes but is followed and hunted by his fellow Boers for treason.
INSPIRATION FOR
THE BOOK
The disappearance of Kruger’s gold has always intrigued me. There
are many stories, myths and legends about the whereabouts of this treasure. In
this work of fiction adventure, I have put forward one possibility. I grew up
in this area amongst these people whose stories to their grandchildren in the
lamplight around the kitchen table, tell of the gold that may have changed the
course of the war, told with the bitterness against the English.
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