A BAG OF FABULOUS BOOKS

I have been given a large bag of fabulous novels by Andrea Niblett, the widow of Dr John Niblett who died last year.

My family had supported Andrea and arranged for her boxes of goods to be stored in a padlocked room under our control.

If these novels belonged to Dr Niblett, it was obvious that he was a man of high intellect and education. I was given several novels from the same authors. Dr Niblett knew quality when he read it.

The most fabulous books were by Bryce Courteney and Wilbur Smith. I had read of a book by Bryce Courtenay on the death of his son Damon who died in 1993 of HIV/AIDS entitled April Fools Day. I learned so much about dementia of an AIDS sufferer from this book.

I have always wanted to write novels but these authors have totally intimidated me. They knew so much about their subject that they recorded in easy to understand words.

The book with the greatest impact was by Wilbur Smith entitled The Triumph of the Sun. Please click:

The Triumph of the Sun - Wilbur Smith

www.wilbursmithbooks.com/books/courtney/the-triumph-of-the-sun

Rich with vibrant historical detail and infused with his inimitable powers of storytelling, 

The Triumph of the Sun is Wilbur Smith at his masterful best.

He wrote on the bloody take-over of the Sudan in North Africa in the late 1800s by the Mahdi and his army of Dervishes.

This was the campaign in which the British Army relief column did not arrive in time and the Commander General Gordon was brutally killed by a Dervish leader.

The Moslem Dervishes were blood thirsty, brutal and gave no mercy to prisoners who were often beheaded.

Older women were killed or put into menial slavery. Younger women from 12 years old became wives and sex slaves of the Dervish leaders with selection in rank order.

Neighbouring tribes and kingdoms were attacked by treachery and the leader beheaded with his head spiked on a pole for all to see.

It is easy to see that the Moslems of the so-called Islamic State have the same barbaric approach as the Dervishes of 130 years ago.

The belief is that Allah smiles on the severed heads of the enemies killed in his name.

Fighting Christian infidels made life easy with use of women and children as hostages and shields. It was known that the Christian armies show mercy to prisoners.

The rule of the Dervishes  came to an end with the British army bringing machine guns into battle that mowed down Dervish armies and horses into mangled heaps.

The so-called Islamic State suffered from the rocket attacks from fighters and drones. The Mahdi planned a caliphate just as the so-called Islamic State planned to do.