The book has been described as "ground-breaking," the only comparable publication being that of the historian J. Agar-Hamilton's The Road to the North, published in 1937. This book describes the career of an English aristocrat, Christopher Bethell, who arrives in southern Africa in 1878 as the classic "remittance" man, despatched to the colonies to avoid a scandal at home. Bethell, an intelligence officer and later, a border agent, is the protagonist...