124 BOOK REVIEWSprovided by the capture of the Soviet Ambassador to Zambia. He is brain-washed into supporting ZANLA and withdrawing support from ZPRA. Quitewhy the Rhodesian war effort should benefit from Cuban soldiers beingshipped to Mocambique and a cargo of arms being sent directly to RobertMugabe is not made clear except in the rather unconvincing observation:' "Any confusion in the unholy alliance which is working against us can onlybe of benefit, even if it only lasts for a few days" '. It is indicative of thedesperateness with which the novelists are forced to view the situation thathope of winning the war should be made to hang on such slender threads.Another sub-plot charts an attempt to assassinate Joshua Nkomo by a manwhose girl-friend had been murdered in the Viscount disaster of September1978, although there is no suggestion that anything would have been achievedhad such an attempt succeeded. In the descriptions of Spark's obsessionalhatred of Nkomo and his determination to avenge his girl-friend's murderArmstrong seems to be working out a fantasy with which many WhiteRhodesians would be able to identify.The main concern of the book is with the Rhodesian raids into Zambiawhich are described with competent reportage, although how accurate theyare in fact it is impossible to know. What is interesting is to speculate whyArmstrong felt it necessary to pad out these accounts with his improbablesub-plots.The raids were, in terms of what they set out to do, successful and musthave demanded courage and dedication from those who took part. Despitethis even when the book was being written the war continued to escalate.Nothing had changed. Is that not the reason why novelists like Armstrongcannot rest with realistic accounts of the conduct of the war? To the novel-ists ten years ago the idea that a large-scale war could develop seemedfantastic; to the contemporary novelist the war is only too real. They haveto allow their fictions to lapse into fantasy for only in fantasy is there anysort of comfort.University of Rhodesia A. J. CHENNEIXSProminent Rhodesian Personalities 1978 Edited by L. Hewitt. Salisbury,Cover Publicity Services, 1978, 238pp., illustrated, no price indicated.This work is a new version of Prominent African Personalities of Rhodesia(reviewed, ante (1978), VI, 221), expanded by the inclusion of some 60more Africans and about 140 Europeans. Although of some use in respectof the personalities included, the coverage is too inconsistent and scrappyto make it a valuable work of reference.R.S.R.