Daren

Less well known that its predecessor, Guns of Navarone this sequel starts off as the main characters reach the ship having left he fictional island. They are bundled off to Italy for a meeting with Jensen, who briefs them on their next mission - heading into Yugoslavia.

And so Mallory, Miller and Andrea are to parachute in to rescue a division of partisans who the Germans have trapped. Going with them are three younger marine commandos who somewhat predictably are the sacrificial lambs of this story.

This team are not the first to have been sent into Yugoslavia to help the Partisans, but somehow the Germans know when each team will arrive and have intercepted them, so these men are heading in knowing they will likely be captured.

Throughout the book the reader is left (much like the three marine commandos) at a disadvantage, where Mallory keeps much of the knowledge of the mission to himself. He knows more than we are all told and as such there is plenty of play on him making strange arbitrary looking decisions.

He is not the only one, as the Germans also know more about the team than they show, so there is lots of second guessing and moves, especially with the central characters in Bosnia of Maria a double agent and her blind singer brother whom she guides about for the entire book.

The book has lots of impossible odds, heroics, sacrifices and action throughout. While some distance from believable, it makes for an amusing enough read, despite it not really being my chosen genre. ( I was away and finished the book I had taken with me, so was reliant on finding something to read in a charity shop book selection.)

I did feel the plot was unnecessarily complicated, with perhaps a bit much suspension of belief as to the very long odds that aways came through.

3 stars

Set in the Indian Rebellion / Sepoy Mutiny of 1854 in India, Bond presents this story as a tale he recalls being told by his father. His father was born in Shahjahanpur, where the story takes place.

After a brief introduction, he hands over to Ruth Labadoor to tell the story - her story of a British family and their survival in the Rebellion.

It begins the day that Shahjahanpur was taken in rebellion, where she and her father were attending church, and her father was slain. Running home to her mother, she finds the house in the cantonment already in flames. She is intercepted by a neighbour and reunited with her mother, grandmother and cousin, her mothers half brother, his mother and their servants. They were in a neighbours house, being protected from the rioters, looters and those seeking blood - whether innocent or not.

An so Ruth tells the story of their time through the rebellion, and how they were abducted from the safety of their neighbours house by a Pathan leader who was aroused by Ruth, despite her big only thirteen, and wanted her for a second wife. As such they were brought to his house, and kept in protection there, although Ruth's mother evaded giving permission, stalls for time.

As so we are shown how the wife of Javed Khan (the Pathan) extends sympathy to he family and how his wife, Khan's aunt and Khan's wife's sister, both of who take turns at having the family stay with them. All are sympathetic, and none with for Ruth's mother to give in to Javed Khan.

I won't spoil the story, but this was a short novel, and easily read. Different to the previously Ruskin Bond novels I have read, but good none the less.

4 stars.

Begg is a well travelled New Zealand born doctor who at the time of writing was living in South Africa. This book describes his travels in South America over a four month period with his daughter Mary (also a doctor) in 1967.

They zig-zag through the continent, like any good Kiwi traveller they are budget conscious, and regularly pass by fancy hotels in favour of modest guest houses. Where they don't scrimp however is when they take internal flights that save them time that would otherwise be spent on road or rail. They also splashed out on some scenic flights to view South America's waterfalls - albeit the first two waterfall visits are failures due to cloud and fog.

They cover plenty of ground in their four months, taking in Guyana before flying to Trinidad & Tobago en route to Venezuela (no direct flights), then Colombia, Ecuador with a side trip to the Galapagos Islands, then to the Peruvian Amazon, Brasil, Paraguay, Argentina & Chile.

Highlights of their trip as a reader were probably some of the places I enjoyed visiting myself, such as Iguassu Falls (at the borders of Brasil, Paraguay & Argentina), Asuncion on a raining Sunday, the cities of Santiago and Buenas Aires.

Also places I didn't get to visit including the Galapagos, but strangely they also visited the island of Floreana and were hosted by Margaret Whittmer who by this time was living on the island with her sister. (The Wittmer's were central to bizzare goings on on the island in the years prior and central to much speculation of murder and coverups among the German people (and an Austrian) who chose to live on the island (Review of Wittmer's book Floreana; I also read another on this topic, but did not review it).

At the conclusion of his journey they had reached the most southern point they could - having first reached Rio Gallegos in Argentina (I got to here) they continued to Ushuaia right on the Beagle Channel and then on to Puerto Williams over the channel in Chile.

Overall it was a fairly vanilla summary of their travels, and was written at a steady pace without much threat of getting over excited.

3 stars

Well travelled family, but despite the blurb, they travel for the most part in this book without their young children, who join Myrtle near the end of the journey.

Essentially, Myrtle and husband Hugh, joined by Bill an Roger - all with experience as skiing, climbing and adventure generally, cross Greenland from east to west on foot towing sledges! The journey is largely through uninhabited land (other than at the beginning and the end (other than the American base, which being secret is not acknowledged by the authorities, but they are welcomed nevertheless!) As they reach the west coast, they are met by their children, brought over by a friend who is to stay with Mrytle for a few weeks while Hugh and the others take canoes and complete a further leg of the journey.

The book begins with their preparations, touches on earlier explorers journeys in Greenland, explains the approvals they cannot obtain from Denmark (but go anyway) and then crack on to the journey itself. The author does a good job of carrying the story without excessive repetition. A chapter near the end is written by Hugh, covering the canoe journey, and an appendix contains an article about his medical research undertaken on the journey, which is only briefly touched on in the narrative (research in to adrenaline).

I am not sure if other editions contain photos, but my copy (Travel Book Club edition) had no photos at all, which was disappointing. The two maps were also of poor quality, offering little explanation as to the journey. Notwithstanding these faults, the book is readable and interesting.

3 stars

A book of reportage in four parts from Alex Shoumatoff who at the time was a staff writer at The New Yorker, and travelled to Africa to research and interview people to write these pieces. No stranger to Africa Shoumatoff references some of his earlier travels in these articles.

The Woman Who Loved Gorillas is the story of Dian Fossey in Rwanda and particularly violent murder, but also a potted history of her life and her troubled interactions with various people from her African staff to her research assistants. It seems that people had wildly varying opinions and experiences with Fossey - she seemed imminently unsuited to any interactions with humans! No real conclusion was drawn as to whom the murderer might have been, but various people / groups were examined and Shoumantoff gave opinions on whether he considered them relevant.

The Last Of The Dog-Headed Men In Madagascar live the indiri, also known as babakoto, one of the larger species of lemur and referred to as the dog-headed man. Supposedly mistaken for a strange tribe of men by early travellers (Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta and Sir John Mandeville), although Shoumantoff doesn't dwell on this - in fact he takes over half this article to even get to them. Instead he provides a potted history of Madagascar and its rulers, anecdotes about Sir David Attenborough and other distractions, although all leads to Madagascar's high value diversity of flora and fauna (much like the Galapagos) and how endangered everything there is, including the indiri.

The Emperor Who Ate His People Central African Republic is the location of the third article - and a review of the monstrous rule of Jean-Bédel Bokassa. Murders, ritual cannibalism, horrendous corruption and his ridiculously expensive coronation ceremony in a country heavily reliant on foreign aid (mostly France).

In Search Of The Source Of AIDS While dated in terms of current knowledge around AIDS, Shoumatoff takes a good go at tracing early reports of AIDS / HIV-like symptoms in various African countries, while also looking at other locations such as America and Europe where early cases are noted. He goes fairly deep into come technicalities around HIV1 and HIV2, interviews lots of doctors and people working in roles assisting AIDS (and other poor health) sufferers. Shoumatoff visits Uganda, Guinea Bissau, Congo (DR) and Kenya. Well put together, but not the kind of travel / history / entertainment story I would be seeking out!

These were all well assembled, interesting pieces.

4 stars.

In 1967 Welshman Clive Nichol was employed by the Imperial Ethiopian Government as a Game Warden, to establish the newly planned Simien National Park. The phrase 'newly planned' is important in the context of his two years from October 1967 to October 1969. The planned National Park passed into law only after Nichol had resigned and left, but that is the end of the book, and I have jumped ahead.

Ethiopia was late to the National Park party - the last country below the Sahara to establish them. The primary reason the Semien National Park was formed was to protect the Walia ibex (Capra walie)and its habitat. Walia exist only in the Semien area, and at the time Nichol arrived were under significant threat from habitat loss due to the farmers in the area cutting down and burning trees to attempt to gain arable land. Added to this is the poaching of Walia, and also the Simien Fox (also called Ethiopian wolf, Canis simensis), as well as the general corruption in Ethiopia, Nichol had plenty to deal with.

Nichol writes an honest account of his time and dealings with people, his joys and challenges. He shares a lot of his troubles, his thoughts, his frustrations. He seems an interesting character, and before his appointment in Ethiopia, Nichol was working in Canada above the Arctic Circle researching ducks. His wife is Japanese - he and their two children join Nichol in Ethiopia, but only once he has built a house for them to live in - they also leave when one of their children falls sick and the reality of the isolation in which they live becomes apparent. Nichol is also trained in karate and maintains a high level of fitness. On occasion Nichol did come across as lacking a bit of the self control that is supposed to be a part of being highly trained in Karate.

There was plenty to like about this book, although it stopped a little short of 5 stars for me due to some repetition (although to be fair many of the problems he was dealing with were repetitive and frustrating, so it isn't such a surprise this came through in the book).

4.5 stars.

Post script - I was initially pleased to see when I looked at Wikipedia to see images of the Walia ibex that it had not gone extinct since the book was written, but had in fact stablised (status vulnerable). Nichol considered there could have been as few as 150 Walia left when he was in the park. I see that Wikipedia has a figure of 200 to 250 at its lowest point (1990s), but is non-committal about current numbers. Another source suggests they reached 800 in 2015, but has since declined to 300. I suppose I celebrate the fact the Walia is not yet extinct, but I have limited faith in humans in these situations.

Douglas Lockwood was an Australian author and newspaper correspondent well known for his writing about Aboriginals. When he published this book, in 1964 he was the Darwin correspondent for he Melbourne Herald.

He was given the opportunity to accompany a patrol by the Welfare Branch of the Northern Territory Administration. The patrol was to travel along the Gun Barrell Road into the Gibson Desert to a point about 600 miles west of Alice Springs and about 200 miles over the Western Australia border. Ostensibly they were out seeking the nomadic Aboriginal people who were living in the most incredibly harsh conditions - they saw their role as a sort of rescue and introduction of the Aboriginals to white men.

Lockwood was fascinated by the possibility that there were Aboriginal families out there who had never seen or had contact with white men - there proved to be plenty. The name of the book comes from the fact there is little to hunt in the desert, and the Pintubi people survive primarily on a diet of lizards.

The patrol was led by Jeremy Long, accompanies by a cadet patrol officer, an American cine camera operator employed by the ABC, plus several other white men, and a number of Aboriginal trackers and interpreters, all established in three Landrovers, plus a fourth that was to accompany them briefly to get them established. In short time one of the Landrovers broke down and the temporary one left, meaning a redeployment of people as they were down a vehicle to begin with.

The whittled down patrol carried on, and Lockwood describes their journey, the hardships of the desert, the men, women and children they meet and introduce to damper, tea and tinned meat! IN this day and age it would not be the preferred method of engaging with tribes who have had no contact with 'civilisation', but it was 1960, and Lockwood is describing here what the Welfare Branch were tasked to do.

Lockwood does a good job of describing all around him, adding some history about previous desert explorers in this area, and about the creation of the Gun Barrell Road. The pastedown contains a basic map of the journey and within a generous number of black and white photographs.

A snapshot of time, of course dated by modern standards.

3 stars