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NFB Publishing to publish novel on the Rhodesian Bush War

Sep 19, 2018 | In the News

“Jackie Hangman,” the first novel in an exciting trilogy by author Robert Leslie, is the latest offering from NFB Publishing in Buffalo.

Leslie was born in Southern Africa. He spent several years working as a rigger for a South African shaft sinking company on the copper belt of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia).

He returned to the Republic when Zambia gained independence. A year later he joined a construction company in Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). While working in the bush, he had a fleeting encounter with the Selous Scouts, which inspired him to write this and other stories.

Jackie Hangman is his debut novel, the first in a trilogy involving Sion Michael. Leslie now lives in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia, with his wife and their two dogs.

In 1973, the Rhodesian Bush War raged as hot as the deserts and jungles where it took place. There were many factions of Africans who wanted to take control of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe from the European colonialists, but one man was willing to do whatever it took to drive the whites from his country, no matter how brutal or atrocious. He had the support of the people and the ability to slip over the border at will. And his chances of becoming the president of Zimbabwe grew every day. He called himself iLunga.

Sion Michael, a South African fighting for Rhodesia, was a commander in the Selous Scouts, an elite group of counter-terrorist operatives who took on the guise of the enemy and were thus able to penetrate their ranks. He and his team were known as the Butterflies because of their ability to move swiftly and silently through the bush. Authorized to operate outside of Rhodesian borders, they had only one task: To find iLunga and stop him.

Sion came to Rhodesia to fight someone else’s war. There was no way for him to know how deeply personal his fight with iLunga would become.

For more information on NFB Publishing, please visit nfbpublishing.com.

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