A Rhapsody in Blue: The story of the South African Police by Lennox Van Onselen
A Rhapsody in Blue: The story of the South African Police by Lennox Van Onselen
Hardcover
Publisher: Howard Timmins, 1960 First Edition.
Condition: Very Good. The original boards with a DJ are slightly shelf rubbed and edge worn. This book was read and enjoyed but is still overall very good. Slight Tanning/Browning of first pages and previous owner name on first page. The binding is excellent. The book is protected with a Cellophane cover.
Hardback with original pale blue boards with blue lettering to upper spine and spine. Dustcover unclipped.
A Rhapsody in Blue is a story of policemen. It is told by an ex- policeman who is unusual in this sense, that he had already written a book on Cape Antique Furniture that was universally praised by critics for its originality and scholarship.
Lennox van Onselen tells the story of the South African Police in a style which is readable and entertaining. This is no mundane history but a book that traces the development of police forces from the earliest moments of our tempestuous history. It takes the reader into another world; a world peopled by policemen and the lives they live, the risks they take and the amazing episodes which befall them in the execution of their duty.
The book is unusual in many ways. The author switches to the first person in recounting his war experiences and rightly so, as the kaleidoscopic events of war are seen differently through the eyes of individuals. The story of how he lost £20,000 is unique in its philosophy.
He met General Smuts on several occasions, in fact he was deputed to guard him on some of his lonely wanderings round Table Mountain and his comments on Smuts are, to say the least, original.
