Mud Between Your Toes: A Rhodesian Farm

Privately published, 2016, softcover, illustrated, 299 pages, condition; as new.

Glimpse a life filled with contradictions, discoveries, and passion in Peter Wood's fascinating new memoir, Mud Between Your A Rhodesian Farm . This is a powerful story about a teenage boy growing up during the Rhodesian Bush War. Peter Wood is an African. He is white, but he also holds a Chinese passport. And he is also gay. Growing up during the 1970s on his family's farm in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Peter was swiftly introduced to a harsh world in which friends and relatives were murdered in ambushesand the line between blacks and whites was drawn in blood. As travel bans and UN sanctions caused a deepening chasm between his country and the rest of the world, Peter struggled with his identity as a white Rhodesian and later in life, when living in London, he nurtured his skills as a photographerand finally found the courage to come out as gay. Now a twenty-year resident of Hong Kong and an official Chinese national, Peter is arguably the only white, gay, African man in China. But his wildly entertaining anecdotes delve much deeper than that superficialyet admittedly fascinatinglabel. These stories, based largely on Peter's childhood diary entries, offer insight into the universal human from tragedies and triumphs to catastrophes and, perhaps most importantly, joy.

A lovely personal memoir - it's not a history or comprehensive story by any means. But it gives great realism to what a young, confused man growing up in pre Mugabe Zimbabwe was thinking and doing. I have the fortune to know the author well - and the book provides a doorway into his emotions, insecurities and journey as a young man.