About the Book

Storm over South Africa follows the lives and tribulations of a diverse group of characters through the 2nd Anglo-Boer War from 1899-1902 in South Africa. They belonged to different levels of the opposing societies and the story follows their actual life and death experiences in this conflict. The characters include the seventeen-year-old son of a Boer president; a young shipbuilding dock worker and his military nurse girlfriend from the industrial north-east of England, and a young Canadian soldier who volunteered for Canada’s first campaign outside its borders. Involved too are such illustrious British participants as Winston Churchill, Field Marshals Frederick Roberts and Herbert Kitchener, Generals Ian Hamilton and Robert Baden-Powell among others. Boer leaders involved include Generals Christiaan de Wet, Louis Botha, Koos de la Rey and Jan Smuts. The reader is guided through the various twists and turns of the first major British conflict of the 20th century from its beginning through to its end. The naivety and excitement of combatants in the lead up to and beginning of the Second Anglo-Boer War was contagious. It pulled many naïve young men into the maelstrom of combat. It began as another glorious Victorian war. But the successes and failures, sufferings and disillusionment soon emerge. It is a tale of imperial arrogance and determination, of stubbornness, innocence, love and loss experienced in a rugged and alluring land far from the heart of the British Empire.

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About the Author

MICHAEL G. BERGEN Born in England and raised in Canada the author has lived in and explored Europe and Africa for most of his adult life. After half a lifetime of pursuing various business interests, the author began a personal voyage of historical discovery. This developed into a burning desire to write historical fiction based on his research. From this passion a series of historical stories emerged, inspired by the lives of his twentieth century ancestors and their more famous contemporaries. Storm over South Africa, set during the Second Anglo-Boer War, is the first book in that series known as The Rutherford Chronicles.