ROUGH DIAMOND - The Incredible Story of BARNEY BARNATO

Heinemann, London, 1982 (first edition). Hardcover with dustcover, 348 pages. Very good condition: tightly bound and neat.

The rough, arid wilderness of colonial South Africa is the setting for this powerful saga of love and ambition in the legendary Kimberley diamond fields. Young Barney Barnato had nothing to lose when he abandoned his squalid existence in London's East End and set out for Africa to join his brother. As they began to build an empire, the likable, quick-witted Barney made some influential friends... and some dangerous enemies, including Cecil Rhodes, who scorned the pauper turned tycoon and tried at every turn to destroy him. Many men sought wealth and power on the African veldt, but few ever succeeded. Barney Barnato was one who did, and the tale of his epic struggle from unbearable poverty to unimagined riches, from the loveless slums to the passionate devotion of a beautiful woman, makes for a riveting novel that blends history with fiction in the halcyon days of nineteenth-century empire building.