Book Description

The story tells of two men, one (Matthew Kumalo) bent on disrupting the stretch of Rhodesia Railways track south of Victoria Falls and towards Bulawayo in the south, harassing and murdering railway staff, and the other in protecting the same and keeping traffic flowing. Phillip Lewis, was the railway civil engineer in charge of keeping the vital railway lines open in the face of the continued terrorist attacks. Joanna Wilson, working as a reporter on the South African Johannesburg Star newspaper, was the woman that Phillip had never got out of his system. She revisits Rhodesia with a South African media group to report on the war presently raging across the country. Simultaneously the ZANLA forces of Robert Mugabe, working out of Mozambique, are planning to destroy the road/rail bridge over the Zambezi River at Victoria Falls, chiefly to prevent Joshua Nkomo's Russian tanks crossing from Zambia into Rhodesia where they could potentially be used against Mugabe's ZANU party. The war of terror subsequently leads to Phillip and Joanna being isolated and pursued through the bush leaving Phillip with life-changing decisions to make. The Author Tom Bryer, OLM, C.Eng. FICE (ret'd) A retired Chartered Civil Engineer, whose career centred on the design, construction and maintenance of a variety of railway systems, including those in Central and Southern Africa, Channel Tunnel, Docklands Light Railway, London Underground, Network Rail and South Wales Docks. Tom lived with his wife Ida in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe for a period from 1967 to 1983 and witnessed much of the internal strife of the period. Recently a widower, he now spends his time writing novels (un-published), choir singing and tending to house and garden.