If I Should Die

About the Book

This is a story of Africa, shown at its most cruelest and tender moments. It is a story of violence set against the breathtaking beauty of the land, where cicades sing their interminable song and elephants gambol in a mud hole.

It is a story of vengeance and endurance. It is not a story of Black against White, but of the resistance to the winds of change; the drawing in an empires and the global trend towards righting past wrongs. It is a conflict where Sergeant Wilson and his men fight a war they know they cannot win, but they fight it anyways, because it is their job.

Appalling events personalize the conflict into a brutal and unremitting contest to the death between Sergeant Wilson and the leader of a terrorist band, known as 'Chaka', the best men each side has to offer, Severely wounded and taken across the border for interrogation Sergeant Wilson is beyond pain.

Hopelessly in love, the beautiful Sally Ferguson arrives in the same country and with the aid of friends attempts to discover where Bob us being held, with the ill-conceived idea of affecting a rescue. She finds herself in a terrifying situation. It is also a story of love and passion, where a frightened woman kills and finally gives her life for the man she loves.

The story is unremitting in its action and the saddest thing about it is that most of it could have happened. It is set in Nyanga, a make-believe country in Africa. But those who were there will know.

About the Author

Tom Hampshire was born in Hampshire, England, where he spent his early years. After completing his education he served for six years in the Fleet Air Arm branch of the Royal Navy. Leaving the service he made his living for several years as an artist before moving to Southern Africa, where he worked as an engineer on various mines in South Africa, Zambia and Namibia, finally settling in what was then Rhodesia. During the Rhodesian conflict he joined the reserve branch of the security forces where he served in border patrol and in the Marine Division. It was there that he acquired much of the material for his first book If I Should Die. The war being lost, depending on which side you were on, he and a friend bought a 30-foot boat in England and sailed around the world for four years; a trip bedeviled by pirates and hurricanes. They were finally shipwrecked off the coast of New Zealand and had to work there for a year to repair the boat. They carried on to Australia where Tom's partner left him to return home. Tom continued on his own to South Africa and eventually back to Australia where he became an Australian citizen. His latest adventure was to walk from John O'Groats, in the north of Scotland to Land's End in the south of England, a distance of 1440km, which took him 46 days to complete. Tom has now retired to Lake Macquarie where he enjoys writing, painting, and walking.