Sandy Curle

In his vivid letters home to his father in the Scottish Borders, Sandy Curle (1900-80) paints an engaging picture of 1940s Ethiopia -- supported by over 100 illustrations and comprehensive explanatory notes. During the liberation, Sandy had led his Ethiopian irregular troops up from Kenya, but he had not seen his wife for three years or their new daughter the editor of this book -- at all. As part of the new Ethiopian government, he observes tensions between the restored Haile Selassie and the veterans of colonial administration. Sent to Jimma in 1943 to advise the governor of the south-west, he wins the trust of the old school Ras Birru, and helps support the Emperors modernising policies on the ground. His family is at last able to join him here in 1944 after an adventurous wartime voyage. Full of telling detail, the letters bring alive a complex society recovering from the unpredictable and brutal Italian occupation. Sandys extensive social circle includes friends across the nations from his 20 years in East Africa, old comrades and, of course, Scots. He shares with us his wide interests in archaeology, religion and the natural world together with domestic worries and family drama.