The art of storytelling is so important, especially when it comes to history. It can so easily become incredibly boring to just relay dates, names and facts. Thomas Pakenham gave a very comprehensive, colourful overview of the Anlgo Boer war including the English, Boer and African perspective.
Personally, my deduction is that this was an incredibly unnecessary war. A war dreamed up by Milner where everyone suffered massive losses.
It was very interesting to get insight into this war, as I knew (embarrassingly) very little about it. I know that my great grandmother was in a concentration camp. Whenever I think of my grandfather, I remember him reading this book. I think we would have had a wonderful conversation about all the characters and this part of our history; I would have loved to get his take on it.
It was good to meet all the characters, now when I drive to Stellenbosch and I see Baden-Powell offramp, I can immediately place him.
The only thing that I found a bit frustrating with this book is that the author would take us on a journey, and then all of a sudden jump two / three months back
No comments:
Post a Comment