REITZ TRILOGY

[1]. COMMANDO: a Boer journal of the Boer War; with a preface by J.C. Smuts. [2nd edition]. London: Faber & Faber, 1932. 331 pages: folding coloured map. Cloth. Spotting to page edges & preliminary pages. A tight copy. "A lamentable tale of things done long ago- and ill done" Title page.
"Reitz had the uncanny knack of living through the war as though leafing through the pages of an adventure story" Thomas Pakenham. THE BOER WAR. 

[2]. TREKKING ON; with a preface by J.C. Smuts. [1st edition]. London: Faber & Faber, September 1933. 351 pages: folding maps. Cloth, worn on edges of spine. Name on front free endpaper. 
TREKKING ON begins where COMMANDO ended, describing Reitz's period in Madagascar, his return to the Transvaal, his recuperation and his stay in the home of J.C. and Issie Smuts [the two people to whom I owe the most in the world, p. 59], his years as a lawyer in Heilbron, the Rebellion, World War I in German West and German East Africa, and finally his time on the Western Front. Upon his arrival in London in 1917, Reitz enlisted as a private. General Smuts, then in the War Cabinet, found out and summoned Reitz to visit him at the Savoy Hotel (where Reitz witnessed Smuts and Churchill discussing the war). Thereafter Reitz was sent to Aldershot to complete a senior officers' course "This was General Smuts' doing… I had graduated from Private to Second Lieutenant, to Major, in the course of a week" [p. 165]. Reitz went on to command a regiment and saw considerable action until the end of the war. Reitz writes with an openness and style that is gripping and full of insight and information.

[3]. NO OUTSPAN. London: Faber & Faber, 1943 [1st edition]. 288 pages, [4] leaves of plates: illustrations, portraits, 2 colour folding maps. Cloth in exceptionally good condition. Spotting to preliminary pages & page edges as normally seen.
Reitz deals with southern Africa post WWI and his period in politics. Every bit as readable as the first two volumes.