Rhodesiana Reprint Library Melina Rorke Told by Herself

Author Name      Rorke M.

 

Title                       Melina Rorke

 

Binding                 Hardcover 285pp

 

Book Condition   Very Good in Very Good dust jacket

                               Usual shelfwear,minor foxing, contents clean,  

                               tight and crisp                     

 

Publisher              Books of Rhodesia 1971

 

                                Rhodesiana Reprint Library

             

                               Volume 18 Gold Series

 

                              Facsimile reproduction of the 1939 edition

 

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ROMANTIC and partly fictionalised autobiography which moves briskly through the pioneering era of Bulawayo, Rhodesia, the 1896 Rebellion and the Anglo-Boer War, where the author served as a nurse. The dust-jacket of the first {1939) edition stated: "Few women now living could tell of personal adventures as remarkable as those here recounted. A mother and widow at 15 - knew Rhodes, Barnato and Kruger - left the turmoil of diamond-digging in Kimberley for the hazards of the northward trek - started a nursing home in Bulawayo - saved son and sister-in-law from Matabele warrior, did heroic work in the hospitals during the Boer War - was with the force that relieved Mafeking - received from Baden-Powell the Red Cross flag that flew over the hospital during the siege - was decorated by King Edward VII..." In truth, Melina Rorke's "amazing experiences" are compounded of both fact and invention, but major events recounted are generally historically correct. The mysteries surrounding Melina's life remain. The newly-compiled Publishers' Introduction clarifies some of the obscurities, however, and the new dust-jacket, prepared after the Introduction was written, throws considerable light on the family history. (Antecedents are traced to the 1820 Settlers in South Africa.) This is a spirited narrative, highly recommended as light reading.