I am currently reading "Out of Shadows" by Jason Wallace.
We went to the same school, but he was there some years after I had finished. His book, in part in the mould of "Stalky and Co" by Rudyard Kilping, is a brave attempt at portaying a fictious series of events involving public school boys in Zimbabwe. The vast majority of his readers will not, I fear, have the slightest knowledge of his subject matter and consequently be baffled by it all.
I must confess to feeling let down by the book. In part I suspect because of the constantly injected tension between characters that just reads false, and political views that were the very antithesis of the school and the parents who chose to send their children there. There was never an admiration for Ian Smith and there always were considerably more black and brown faces amongst the pupils than is suggested by the book! The other irritation is one of style: the dramatic suspense added to the closing sentences of chapters referring to unfortunate incidents to unfold later ... after the third or fourth I started skipping over them!
However those faults aside, I have enjoyed indulging myself in the mix of Shona and Afrikaans words that I recognise from my boyhood vocabulary, the descriptions of the bush and mention of places such as Monkey Hill, where the school flag was flown. I'd forgotten about the Matebele ants and devil thorns - goodness they hurt if you trod on them!
On the bullying of "squacks" by House Prefects and others, I also have a problem: have I, in adulthood, excised painful memories? Were we bullied? I don't think so! Yes, there was the odd scrap and some boys were indeed taunted and made to feel pretty rotten at times, but generally those incidents were isolated; furthermore, if anyone in authority became aware of them, all hell let loose! This story, though suggests an endemic culture of violence which is unfortunate.
The main protagonist yearns to be in England: surely then he would have been aware of the strong links between Peterhouse's house system as well as studies (Toyes rooms) and Winchester?
Missing from the story too, are Tri-colour and Bi-colour - the unique Peterhouse (Haven School in the book) - punishment meted out for minor misdemeanors. It involved writing out a text in very faint pencil and then going over it neatly in ink using a different colour ink for each letter. It took hours!
However, besides all of that: I have started more books than I care to speak of and consequently on a purely technical level am impressed by Jason's completion and ability to have this difficult story published. For me the strength of his writing is not so much in the story but his ability to evoke very strong memories of political and social events that we both lived through.
If you know this period of history in Zimbabwe, or grew up there: you may enjoy reading this book. However, if you didn't - expect to be very confused.
