This is a trilogy of Deneys Reitz’s three compelling works, Commando, Trekking On and No Outspan.

Since publication in 1999, it has become an outstanding seller in its own right. It provides the reader with a lively, personal account of South African affairs from the Jameson Raid in 1895 to the start of World War II, when the author was Deputy Prime Minister of South Africa.

It is also the story of a compulsive adventurer, nature lover and, of course, celebrated daredevil during the Anglo-Boer War who, in the words of Thomas Packenham, ‘had the uncanny knack of living through war as though leafing through pages of an adventure story’. Truly, this knack persisted for the rest of the author’s life; and Adrift on the Open Veld gives the reader a gripping insight into southern African affairs through the eyes of a remarkable man who ended his career as South African High Commissioner in London.