Peter Stiff (September 8, 1933 – April 27, 2016) was a London-born South African best-selling author of both

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a tradi ...

and

non fiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with bei ...

Biography

Peter lived in

Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the ''de facto'' successor state to the British colony of So ...

for 28 years and served as a regular policeman for 20 years in the elite

British South Africa Police The British South Africa Police (BSAP) was, for most of its existence, the police force of Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe in 1980). It was formed as a paramilitary force of mounted infantrymen in 1889 by Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company, fro ...

, from which he retired as a superintendent in 1972. He moved to South Africa in 1980 after the fall of Rhodesia and the rise of

Robert Mugabe Robert Gabriel Mugabe (; ; 21 February 1924 – 6 September 2019) was a Zimbabwean revolutionary and politician who served as Prime Minister of Zimbabwe from 1980 to 1987 and then as President from 1987 to 2017. He served as Leader of the ...

and his ZANU-PF. Peter was specialized in contemporary warfare and politics in the southern African sub-continent and authored books extensively on the bush war in the former

, the ongoing conflict in Angola and the Namibian bush war, on the collapse of Portuguese power in Angola and

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

and much else as well.

Books

* ''The Rain Goddess'': Set in the war-torn area of

's (before 1966,

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing colony, self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The reg ...

; now

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...

) North-East border, a region which the Rhodesian military staff called "Hurricane", the story takes place during the mid-1960s to early 1970s, as the

fight against

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...

-backed guerillas. These guerrillas use torture and violence to intimidate African tribesmen into joining their cause. The Rhodesian Security forces fight to keep a fragile peace that is governed by force of arms, as well as by the tribesmens' faith in the predictions of their spirit medium. This medium is said to be able to communicate with the spirit of the Rain Goddess. While the book was originally written as fiction, many of the events in the book are taken from actual events with some names of persons and places changed. * ''Selous Scouts: Top Secret War'' * ''See you in November'' * ''The Covert War'' * ''Taming the Landmine'' * ''Nine Days of War'' * ''The Silent War: South African Recce Operations 1969–1994'' * ''Cry Zimbabwe: Independence – Twenty Years on'' * ''Warfare by Other Means: South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stiff, Peter 1933 births 2016 deaths South African writers Writers from London 20th-century South African male writers Police officers