A General’s Story: From an Era of War and Peace, by General Jannie Geldenhuys, 328 pages, index, lots of photos. His story takes us through negotiations, threats and the war in South West Africa and Angola. Geldenhuys introduces us to international politicians, ordinary soldiers, friends, foes and traces the roles that they played in the war, as well as during times of tentative peace.

The reader gets to know Geldenhuys as a soldier, an accomplished strategist, a diplomat and a sportsman. The author shares his first-hand experience of important operations and explodes the myth of Cuito Cuanavale by providing facts and figures about the loss of life and equipment on both sides. He also reveals surprising facts about the costs and other implications of the war for southern Africa. Consequently, Geldenhuys’s story is of both military and historical importance.

But this book is more than a General’s account of a war: Geldenhuys’s years of experience make it possible for him to provide insight into developments inside present-day South Africa. A General’s Story presents a world where one meets friction de guerre and discovers the strange intertwined nature of war and peace, success and failure, good and bad luck, chance and fate, winning and losing. Jannie Geldenhuys tells a compelling story that radiates his graciousness, compassion and indomitable sense of humour.