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Mrs. Queen's Chump is the military memoir of a young man who,
naively acquiescing to a period of adventure after leaving boarding
school, soon found himself enmeshed in the agonies of subjugated
peoples caught in the turmoil of a collapsing British Empire and
demanding restoration of their dignity and rightful human freedoms.
Left to deal as best he could with his own transition from boy to
man - somewhat before PTSD became a recognizable quantity - he
realized as a born Canadian citizen he might easily have avoided
service in Britain's army - but he had committed himself, so
entered with his eyes open and became a keen observer.
In stories that are sometimes funny, sometimes frightening, yet
somehow tinged with the sadness that always jolts the loss of
innocence, the author tells of experiences as an infantry officer
fighting in the jungles of both Kenya and Malaya. They are incident
of another time, yet hauntingly contemporary - soldiers sent to far
off corners of the world to secure the privileges of tough and
ambitious colonizers, themselves champions of Empire (no matter
whose) who feel full entitlement over both people and resources.
Bring up the troops
Despite clear dangers, thousands of bright-eyed and brainwashed
young Brits whose invincible dads had recently thrashed Hitler were
now, by the late 1940's and 1950's, keen to do their bit, to head
abroad and have a go at running the Empire. They sallied forth into
what they thought a halcyon sunset in need of some burnishing, but
in reality dazzling in its madness. By the end their military
weight and wallop proved insufficient to address the anger of
millions of very restless natives - or to douse the frenzies of the
likes of Idi Amin.
The initial disease was Empire Myopia. Within a short time, and
like Kurtz in Heart of Darkness, those who had come to impose order
themselves succumbed to an Idi-like dementia that tumbled the whole
wretched Empire to its knees. About the Author:
Born in Vancouver, Canada, Jeremy Hespeler-Boultbee started school
in Australia, continued in the United States and Canada, and
graduated from high school in Britain - this last giving rise to
the military service described in these pages. A young and
insightful officer, whose views often ran counter to those
expressed by his superiors, he was in a unique position to observe
the collapsing British Empire. Later, as a journalist living in
Lisbon, Portugal, he was again witness - this time to the
revolutionary shake-up and demise of another of Europe's entrenched
old orders. Hespeler-Boultbee has worked on major assignments in
Canada, the United States, Portugal and numerous countries in
Africa. In addition to writing, he is an architectural historian
specializing in Renaissance Portugal. He considers home to be
Victoria, British Columbia, Barrancos, Portugal and Bahir Dar,
Ethiopia.
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger
Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain
imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed
pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we
have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting,
preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger
Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and
hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!
This newly updated and revised second edition of "A Story in
Stones" explores the relationship between Portugal and Ethiopia
during the XVI and XVII centuries from the unique perspective of
stonework. Through research and many years of working in the field,
J.J. Hespeler-Boultbee examines the first early Renaissance links
between the principal European superpower of the day and the
ancient Christian empire of Ethiopia's Highlands - using
contemporary architectural vestige as a catalyst for his
findings.
What began as Portugal's mission to discover an unknown world
soon became a quest to find Prester John, the legendary Christian
priest/king presumed to be living on the far side of Islam. In an
attempt to form a Christian military alliance, the search was both
concluded and, in a manner, initiated by explorer Pero da Covilha
in 1493 with his overland journey to the Highland court of Emperor
Eskendar. This was instrumental in setting up a string of ties
between the two nations - diplomatic, military, religious, cultural
and (most long-lasting of all) architectural - almost three decades
before Portugal's diplomatic mission of 1520.
The fascinating story contained in the stones can yet be seen in
the Portuguese and "Gondarine" ruins that dot the Gojjam and Lake
Tana regions; they continue to influence today's Highland
architectural design. Hespeler-Boultbee examines over thirty
different sites, many of which are remote and rarely visited. Fully
illustrated with colour photos and drawings.
About the Author:
J.J. Hespeler-Boultbee is an Art & Architectural Historian and
Associate of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa
University. He lived for twenty-five years in Portugal, during that
time making several forays into the Ethiopian Highlands on behalf
of the Department of History and CIDEHUS (Centro de Investigacao e
Desenvolvimento em Ciencias Humanas e Sociais), the research and
development institute at the University of Evora. For the two year
period, 2007-2009, he lived in and conducted research from Bahir
Dar on Lake Tana, Ethiopia, during which time he found his
historical conclusions were at considerable variance with
colleagues in the History Department at Bahir Dar University -
disagreements which have prompted the revisions leading to this
current updated and revised edition of "A Story in Stones."
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger
Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain
imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed
pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we
have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting,
preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger
Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and
hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone!
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