Tommy Goes Home
Author: Peter Stiff
232pp; size 242 X 168-mm
Hardback; ISBN 0-7974-0279-9; non-fiction.
Take Manfred Forster, a tough geologist who as
a child fought in the battle for Berlin, was
brought up in communist East Germany, and escaped to the West hours
before the Berlin Wall clanked down like an iron curtain. Take his wife Karin,
their teenage sons Frank and Uwe and their eight-year-old daughter Gabriella.
Toss them, together with dogs, parrots, assorted livestock and a half grown
lion called Tommy, into a Land-Rover with 100 000km
on the clock, and convoy it with a beaten up old Volksie. Send them
overland from West Germany,
through Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Angola, Zambia and Botswana to the
then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). During their journey Portugal erupts into
military and civil rebellion and Angola is wrenched apart by tribal and
Marxist private armies scrambling for
the spoils of their late colonial masters what happens is the essence of
Peter Stiffs fantastic second book.
In Angola the Forsters battled with aching muscles, block and tackles,
power saws and faltering vehicles about to give up the ghost, through swamp,
forest, savannah grasslands and endless bushveld. They were beset by
starvation, fever and threats of sudden horrible deaths at the hands of
instant black soldiers some as young as 12 or 13 dressed in rags, but
armed with modern Soviet weapons and eager to kill. The tropical heat was so
intense that even Tommy nearly died. Once Manfred spurned the offer of a
Kings ransom in diamonds to
stay and fight as a mercenary commander but no amount of diamonds was
worth the lives of his family.
Throughout the story one remarkable continuous thread is apparent. Without
Tommy as their constant companion, friend and guardian, none of the Forster
family would have survived to tell this story but survive they did.
This is not just another animal story. It is a remarkable animal story as well
as a family story full of love, laughter and pathos. It is also a story of an
African civil war and the agony of ordinary people when they are drawn
willy-nilly into the maelstrom of a conflict that was
not of their making.
What is written in these pages is true it all happened.
Media reviews:
Lion stories are an integral part of the folklore of
Africa. What makes this book so different from the usual run is that it is a
pure adventure story of a family set in the midst of contemporary African
history and amazingly is quite true.
Sunday Mail Salisbury, Rhodesia
Nothing less than an amazing trek across Africa.
Sunday Times Johannesburg
Grit, determination, flattery, sometimes downright luck and once or twice the
formidable presence of their lion,
Tommy, saved the Forster family from being massacred.
To the Point Johannesburg
An enchanting story that will appeal to both young and old.
Rhodesia Herald Salisbury, Rhodesia.
The story, handled lightly and skilfully, makes pleasant weekend reading and
leaves one with a lasting admiration for the fortitude of Manfred Forster and
his family.
Bulawayo Chronicle
A gripping and readable
story for all ages.
Financial Gazette Salisbury, Rhodesia
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