Warrior: the Legend of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen by Peter Hathaway Capstick

Warrior: the Legend of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen by Peter Hathaway Capstick

Peter Hathaway Capstick died in 1996. At the time of his death, the world-renowned adventure writer was putting the finishing touches on this, a stirring and vivid biography of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, a man with whom he felt he had much in common. Edited and prepared for publication by his widow, Fiona Capstick, Warrior is Capstick's riveting farewell to his fans and the final addition to the bestselling Peter Capstick Library.

Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen was one of those rare men whom fate always seems to cast in the dramas that shape history. As a young officer, he served in India and Africa during the glory days of the British Empire, defending the crown's dominions and exploring its darkest reaches. His exploits in the bloody colonial wars of turn-of-the-century East Africa earned him a reputation as one of the most fierce and ruthless soldiers in the Empire, yet it was during those years spent roaming the silent places of the Serengeti, hunting its game and learning its secrets, that Meinertzhagen developed a fascination with Africa that would last a lifetime.

But there were other adventures to come, and Capstick narrates them all with his trademark skill and wit: daring commando raids against German forces in Africa and the Mideast during World War I, covert missions to the USSR and Nazi Germany between the wars, work as an OSS agent during World War II, and Meinertzhagen's ceaseless support of Israeli nationhood are all woven together into an epic adventure. Warrior: The Legend of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen is a powerful chronicle that follows the tracks of a twentieth-century icon.

In African hunting literature, Peter Hathaway Capstick (1940-1996), a former Wall Street stockbroker turned professional adventurer, was hailed as the heir to Hemingway and Ruark. After retiring from his job, he hunted throughout Central and South America before moving to Africa in 1968, where he held professional hunting licenses in Ethiopia, Zambia, Botswana, and Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Capstick also worked as an Elephant and Buffalo Cropping Officer, one of the most dangerous jobs in the military. He was also featured in an award-winning safari DVD and audio recordings, in addition to writing on hunting. Captainstick lived in Pretoria, South Africa, with his wife Fiona until his death at the age of 56.