Saturday 13 January 2024

The Meeting House

 



In 1942, some 350,000 men of Africa volunteered to join the Allied Forces. 


Brave, resourceful and keen to prove themselves as warriors, many never returned from the Far East theatre of war.


One man managed to get out of a Prisoner of War camp in Japan before the Americans bombed Tokyo, bringing four East Africans with him.
  

His remarkable story is told in The Meeting House, 

now a screenplay by Sophie Neville













Wednesday 11 December 2019

'Makorongo's War' wins 'A Woman's Write' international award 2019 for an unpublished novel





'Makorongo’s War' by Sophie Neville has just won the 2019 Grand Prize in A Woman’s Write competition for best unpublished novel.

The judge wrote to say, 'This year’s competition was especially difficult to judge, with many fine submissions from all over the world.' 

'Your book has been through several incarnations to its current, well organized and skillfully written state.'

'Makorongo's War' is currently in the finals of the Eyelands Book Awards for an unpublished novel in the historical fiction category under the new title 'The Man Who Got Out of Japan'. The results will be published soon.

An earlier draft won the Athanatos novel writing contest and was long-listed in the Historical Novel Society's 2018 New Novel Award who noted it was 'told with charm and empathy... in a fresh and unexpected way.'

Thursday 22 November 2018

Makorongo's War in the finals of the Eyelands Book Award


Sophie Neville's newly finished manuscript, Makorongos's War, is in the finals for the international Eyelands Book Award in the category for an unpublished novel. 

The results will be announced on 20th December with an award ceremony in Athens. 

Tuesday 8 August 2017

'Makorongo's War' wins the ACM novel writing contest 2017



'Makorongo's War' by Sophie Neville has won first prize in the Athanatos Christian Ministeries' novel writing contest, awarded at the Athanatos Festival in Greenwood WI, USA on 3rd August 2017

Anthony Horvath, director of ACM, wrote to say, 'This year's contest was extraordinarily hard to judge.  I am informed by my judges that we had several very excellent manuscripts that didn't even make it to the semi-finalist stage.'

It is a huge honour for a novel set in East Africa to have won such a prestigious prize in the USA and thanks go to all who have helped bring it to this stage in its development.

*****

Sunday 22 March 2015

Life on an isolated farm in Tanganyika


There are a number of photographs taken at Oosa River in the 1940s, mostly featuring Tony's sister Joy with various handkerchief trees that grew in the garden. She always posed in the same way.


Living on an isolated farm did not perturb her. She made all her own dresses and grew her hair long, pinning it up to avoid having to get it permed or set. They were miles from any hairdresser. 


Although she sold a few of the water-colour landscapes that she painted, Joy never had a formal job. Being married was seen as an occupation in itself.


She loved Africa and the warm equatorial climate. The fact that a large cobra inhabited the fig tree in the garden did not bother her in the least.




Saturday 26 July 2014

Vera's Story

Vera with her dog

Vera's house

Vera on her horse

Tony on his gelding

Tony and Vera on Mt Kenya

Vera's garden

Vera and Tony

Saturday 21 June 2014

Tony's story - a life spent in East Africa



Makorongo had an unusual friend in the form a Policeman of Scottish decent called Tony Maxtone-Mailer.


Tony's parents married in Malaya in 1911. His grandfather John Gibson, a civil engineer from Ayr, famous for building the Kandy Railway, had become a rubber planter owning plantations in Keang.


Tony's father, Maxtone Lockhart Mailer, arrived from Dumfries in Scotland to manage the rubber plantation and soon married Nellie, one of John Gibson's five daughters.


After WWI ended, Maxtone Mailer took the opportunity to move to East Africa to run coffee and timber plantations that had been acquired by the British Government after the German surrender. The youngest of four children, Tony was born in Kenya in 1991 and instantly went down with blackwater fever.


While his elder brother and sisters were sent back to Dumfries to be brought up by their grandparents, Tony was the little one who stayed with his mother and grew up in northern Tanzania. Since he had survived blackwater fever it was assumed that he would be resistant to malaria.


Although he had to be under a mosquito net before 6.00pm every night, Tony grew up speaking Swahili and learning about the bush from the Warusha people working on the farm. His Ayah, who was a man, told me that he was such an active child he had to attach a dog lead to him.


His father taught him how to ride and shoot well - and little else apart from vehicle maintenance. Tony became a crack shot, able to shoot a sixpence from between his sister's fingers with his air rifle.

 
At the outbreak of the second world war Tony's brother Marcus joined the RAF, but was tragically killed in an accident whilst training in Norway.


Tony joined the Kenyan Police Force as a reservist, but soon became an officer, winning the East Africa show-jumping championships on his horse Captain Blood.


Travel and the safari life always called Tony back to the wilderness, especially when it involved hunting , which he loved.


Much against his father's wishes he married a divorced English lady called Vera Winter, nee Yates, the daughter of Yates Shipping. She was an accomplished pianist but loved life in the bush with her dogs and horses.


Although Tony was stationed at Narok and able to tour the Masai Mara, he left the Police, giving up the security of a decent pension to join the Game Department and became a professional hunter.


Tony and Vera farmed cattle, working with the Masai, whose language Tony had picked up whilst working in the Mara. Tragically Vera was struck by lightening. By the time I knew her she was wheelchair bound but had time to show me photographs of a life that has all but disappeared.


Makarongo joined Tony to work on his safaris. He was bright, very amusing and soon travelled everywhere with the Mailers, organising the vehicles and setting up camp. In old age, Tony and Makarongo were inseparable.


There was always laughter and long stories. They shared memories spanning the decades and experiences that outsiders might find difficult to fully grasp.