RUNNING THE GAUNTLET

First edition: 314 pages, recent full navy leather with red title labels gilt on the spine, new patterned end papers, a good copy.

Mr. Mossop was born in Natal and has remained a man of the veld all his life. At the age of seventy-five he has written his reminiscences, Running the Gauntlet (Nelson, 8s. 6d.) based on notes kept for over fifty years. His outlook is quite unspoilt by contact with the urban world—he has never even been inside a cinema—and his story has an unusual freshness and simplicity. But one wonders where he got his style from. Like so many books by men of action, it has lost its spontaneity somewhere between author and printer, and acquired a rather mediocre journalistic efficiency. In his youth Mr. Mossop went hunting with his Boer friends in the Transvaal. Later he fought with the Frontier Light Horse in the Zulu War, and against the Boers at Majuba Hill. He has many good stories to tell of the pioneer days of the 'sixties, 'seventies and 'eighties, and his adventures as trader, carrier and hunter make the experiences of most modern adventurers seem child's play. http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/2nd-july-1937/38/running-the-gauntlet-by-george-mossop