The If Man

The famous poem If by Rudyard Kipling is based on the life of Jameson, and the suffering he endured as a result of the doomed raid that he and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen carried out against Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic in 1896.
In this engaging biography, Chris Ash recounts the life of this colonial statesman. He was an enigmatic man: when he died The Times estimated that his astonishing personal sway over his followers was equaled only by that of Parnell, the Irish patriot. During the fervor of the South African diamond rush Jameson established a small medical practice in Kimberley in 1878; it was here that he met and forged a lifelong friendship with Cecil John Rhodes.
Jameson's thirst for adventure, coupled with Rhodes's dream of expanding the British Empire from the Cape to Cairo, led to the occupation of Mashonaland in 1890, with Jameson having laid the groundwork in his political dealings with Lobengula, king of the Matabele.
This is Jameson's story: from Administrator of Mashonaland, to the 'invasion' of Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), the Matabele War, the infamous 'Jameson Raid' and his subsequent trial and incarceration in London.