Books
Latest Book - Out Now
Alec: The Father I Barely Knew
I never really knew my father. He died when I was eight. The news was devastating. Unbelievable. True to the spirit of the time, life carried on and I was back in school on Monday morning.
Shortly before my marriage and as I embarked on a new life in Africa, I discovered my father, Alec, had a life and a family I knew nothing about. Researching this story has taken me on a challenging journey into the life of a father who demonstrated both leadership and perseverance, but faced with a moral dilemma in his fifties, chose love over duty.
Please join me on this journey of discovery. Along the way, we will follow Alec’s career in the City, successfully floating a new insurance company, capitalising on the economic boom following WWI. Moving with his family to Worthing to become hoteliers marked the beginning of a new phase in his life, which initially went smoothly … until a young Aquarian woman crossed his path.
As Trevor Tutu writes in his Foreword: Malcolm speaks to and from the heart … join him in exploring the questions that shape our lives.
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Ulendo
Claude's African Journey into War And Passion
A History of Empire seen through the Life of Claude Oldfield (1889-1963) British Colonial Officer, Northern Rhodesia
‘this brilliant book’ – Archbishop Desmond Tutu
In 1983, Malcolm Alexander was given the photo albums of his great-uncle Claude, a colonial officer in Africa from 1911 to 1932. Ulendo – going for a walk in the bush – is a quest for this elusive man in the vanished world of the British Empire, the story behind those captivating old photographs.
When Claude arrived, beautiful Northern Rhodesia was a new colony and Malcolm explains its origins in Livingstone’s missionary zeal and Rhodes’ rapacious ambition. Three years later, Claude was on the front line in the brutal and highly mobile Africa campaigns of World War One, vividly narrated here. Having received the German surrender in 1918, Claude resumed his administrative work among Africans, missionaries and eccentrics – and became involved in a passionate love affair.
After Government cut-backs imposed early retirement and a return home, Claude met a young single woman and was again on active service as an RAF ground officer in the defence of London. During Claude’s lifetime, the ‘wind of change’ was already blowing and Northern Rhodesia became independent Zambia soon after his death.
As Archbishop Tutu writes in his foreword:
‘Malcolm has captured the bitter-sweet feeling that loving Africa engenders. … At this moment, when we are re-examining the legacy of empire, it is imperative that we try and look again at what was driving people. Malcolm gives us that perspective.’
For orders to be delivered outside the UK please use the Contact form.