Robert Ruark

Robert Ruark isn't an author of whom many have heard but he wrote several books in the 50s and 60s of which three featured in my early years. Ruark was an American journalist who, after publishing two books, took a safari in East Africa with a well-known hunter called Harry Selby. The resulting book....

....'Horn of the Hunter', which was first published in 1953, was a success in the USA and was then republished in 1954 by British imprint Hutchinson.

By comparison with 'The Maneaters of Tsavo' and JA Hunter's safari books, it was light reading, written very much tongue-in-cheek and self-deprecatingly. Many today would find some of the events described distasteful but there are aspects of the book which are evidence of Ruark's sympathy with Kenya and its people. For example, he dedicated the book to Harry Selby (left) and to, "our good friends Juma, Kidogo, Adam, Chabani...." and ten other Africans.

I was still at Glengorse when I was given it - hence the '52', my school number - so this would have been some time between 1954 and 1958. It wasn't my favourite African book but Ruark's continuing interest in Kenya resulted in a fictional masterpiece.

His very brave 'Something of Value' told the story of the Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya. This horrible war was one of the reasons for my being sent to school in England in 1954 at the age of nine - the rebellion was in its early stages and the up-country secondary schools were close to the main rebellion areas.

When I was at Keele in the mid-60s and following a course in African Studies, I chose to do a dissertation on the Mau Mau and, in particular, on whether Jomo Kenyatta, later first President of a free Kenya, had been its leader. Ruark, like any good journalist, had researched his book well so, as there was little written about Mau Mau at the time from a neutral standpoint, 'Something of Value' was a useful source. Very broadly, I concluded that Kenyatta hadn't been an active leader, more a figurehead.

Ruark went on to write 'Uhuru', which covered the years in Kenya leading up to Uhuru, Independence. It was another cracking tale, as raw and bloody as 'Something of Value', and another bestseller.

This is my original copy of 'Uhuru', its pages yellowed by time. Unusually, I didn't write in the front of it so don't know when I get it. My original copy of 'Something of Value' was lost, probably because I lent it to someone.