A chat with AJ Venter I’m honoured to be able to call AJ a friend for over a decade now. I had the immense pleasure of knowing this superb rugby player when he was a Springbok and also when he played for the Natal Sharks. I lived near Durban in those days and had season …
A chat with Chris Thrall It was a great pleasure to have such a long chat with a former bootneck, and one with such an interesting life of his own. Also an honour to share in a long line of podcasts with some very interesting people. We covered a lot of ground, Chris. Looking forward …
Sanity Management How to maintain sanity during isolation I have taught the subject of managing imprisonment for many years. My students were mostly people who might find themselves the victims of kidnap situations, where they might be incarcerated on their own or in small groups for months and possibly years. Isolation for the corona virus …
Susan Travers The only woman ever to have served as a French Foreign Legionnaire. Susan soon warmed to the idea of writing a book about her life, in particular revealing her secret love affair with her French Foreign Legion boss, General Koenig. The first task was to find a writer. I didn’t want to attempt …
The elections in Baghdad passed without the high level of violence everyone was expecting although it did start with a bang for us in our hotel. Previous Next A thousand pound bomb went off across the street and destroyed most of the hotel’s windows, blew in doors and collapsed nearly all of the false ceilings. …
Susan Travers The only woman ever to have served in the French Foreign Legion. Susan Travers : 1944 I decided the first step in my search for Susan Travers, to find out if she was indeed still alive, was to write to the French Embassy in Washington DC. It was three months before I received …
Susan Travers Forget Beau Geste . . . I was living in Malibu at the time. A small house overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I’ve attached a pic. Yeah, be jealous – it was a cool house, perfect for a writer. Completely secluded. I spent more time in LA in those days than I did on …
Here we go – again I’m working on FIA Again I’m going to begin from the day I left the SBS and the phone call that changed my life. I spent over 25 years in the most challenging places on the planet, a lot of hostile places. Many of them conflict zones. I had many …