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(Afrikaans volg hieronder) Today is Africa Day. We celebrate the founding of Organisation of African Unity. Sadly there is a lot in Africa that we should not celebrate. Malawi is teetering after the elections, Boko Harem is holding Nigeria ransom and Africa’s newest state, South Sudan, is in dire straits. We have a lot to be thankful for in South Africa. I want to focus on South Sudan today, because I have just finished Andrew Brown’s latest book Devil’s Harvest.
After a “top secret” (read unauthorised) drone strike in South Sudan, a RAF air marshal, George Bartholomew, discovers that a piece of shrapnel had been flung from the explosion site. The problem is that the part has a serial number on it… He will do anything to get it back before it falls into the wrong hands…
At the same time Associate Professor Gabriel Cockburn from the Bristol University is on his way to South Sudan looking for a rare plant. He hires a young woman, Alek, to guide him to the North of the country to find the plant. And then the fun starts… Devils Harvest is damn good. I loved every page. And now my daughter (final year at school) is reading it and she’s loving it to.
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I attended the launch of Devil’s Harvest in The Book Lounge and snapped these pictures.
Andrew in the hot seat.
Mervyn Sloman led the conversation.
James White-Phillips is a police reservist, like Andrew. He attended the launch with a number of his reservist friends. (See Andrew’s book Street Blues for more detail.)
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