The epic story of the Boer War and Harry 'Breaker' Morant: drover, horseman, bush poet - murderer or hero? Most people have heard of the Boer War and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. But Morant was a complicated man. Born in England and immigrating to Queensland in 1883, he established a reputation as a rider, polo player and poet who submitted ballads to The Bulletin and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend. Travelling on his wits and the goodwill of others, Morant was quick to act when appeals were made for horsemen to serve in the war in South Africa. He joined up, first with the South Australian Mounted Rifles and then with a South African irregular unit, the Bushveldt Carbineers. The adventure would not go as Breaker planned. In October 1901 Lieutenant Harry Morant and two other Australians, Lieutenants Peter Handcock and George Witton, were arrested for the murder of Boer prisoners. Morant and Handcock were court-martialled and executed in February 1902 as the Boer War was in its closing stages, but the debate over their convictions continues to this day. With his masterful command of story, Peter FitzSimons takes us to the harsh landscape of southern Africa and into the bloody action of war against an unpredictable force using modern commando tactics. The truths FitzSimons uncovers about 'the Breaker' and the part he played in the Boer War are astonishing - and finally we will know if the Breaker was a hero, a cad, a scapegoat or a criminal.

Kitchener's scapegoat or a murderous war criminal? The truth about Breaker Morant revealed

Black and White in Colour considers how the African past has been represented in a wide range of historical films. Written by an eminent team of scholars, the volume provides extensive coverage of issues that have been prominent in the written history of Africa. Among the themes dealt with are the slave trade, imperialism and colonialism, racism and anti-colonial resistance. Many of the films will be familiar to readers: they include Out of Africa, Hotel Rwanda, Lumumba, Cry Freedom, The Battle of Algiers, and Ceddo. VIVIAN BICKFORD-SMITH works in the Historical Studies Department at the University of Cape Town; RICHARD MENDELSOHN is currently the head of the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town. North America: Ohio U Press; Southern Africa: Double Storey/Juta

The true story of hard-hitting, hard-drinking Harry Morant and the infamous trials of the Bushveldt Carbineers can now be told in "In the search of Breaker Morant" for the first time. In this book you get the whole guts, the true, unvarnished facts gathered during painstaking research, with documents which until now have been kept secret, the whole man, good and bad, with boldness and all the bastardry.

Australian horse-breaker and balladist Harry Morant was executed in South Africa in 1902 after service in the Boer War. Breaker Morant shows that Morant 's shooting of Boer prisoners was probably the result of a command inciting his patrol to vengeance. Lord Kitcherner, who signed Morant's death warrant, was possibly appeasing the German Emperor, since a German missionary also died ... but Morant had advised this missionary to defend himself from the dangerous Boers. Undoubtedly the brave Morant suffered questionable British justice. This book contains a selection of his ballads.

Publisher Description

In this fascinating account, leading Australian military historians tackle 10 of the most enduring historical zombies, or national myths, that have staggered their way through the halls of military history for more than 200 years. From Aboriginal resistance and invasion to Australia’s recent involvement in East Timor, this record disproves the incorrectly memorialized and so-called gallant deeds of past Australian servicemen. Provocative and opinionated, this record attempts to correct the historical record.