Island author writes new historical fiction

A Northwood man has released his first novel, a historical fiction, set in the Kenya Colony during the Mau Mau uprising against the British administration during the 1950s.

‘The Rift’, by Hugh Harrison, who writes under the name of Standish Cope, is based on the tragic encounter of a colonial judge – Edward Stephens – and his family, and a freedom fighter – Munthu Mkesi, and his family.

The irreconcilable conflict between the colonial authorities and predominantly the Kikuyu tribe in the highlands of Kenya Colony, centres on the tribe’s demands for land and freedom. Finally, the chief adversaries, Judge Stephens and Munthu Mkesi, face each other in the drama of the courtroom and their irreconcilable differences and inequalities of position and power become self-evident. Munthu is sentenced to death by hanging on the basis of torture and a forced confession.

The author was born in Kenya in the early 1950s and has personal experiences of life in Kenya as an English teacher in a rural school and as a visiting teacher of first aid homoeopathy with Island charity ‘Uzima in Our Hands’.

The novel is published by Austin Macauley and is also available on Amazon Books.