A “romp” told in
a light-hearted and entertaining style, but I found it somewhat lacking in
substance. (Review by Barry Meehan)
The
Life Of Mercenary Soldier Peter Duffy by Graham
Linscott, well-known as The Mercury’s The Idler, was released last month.
On reading this “romp”, as author Graham
Linscott describes the life of Peter Duffy, I get the feeling that Duffy would
rather have had the by-line read “The
Life of Adventurer Peter Duffy”, as it would seem that he fell into the
role of mercenary rather more by accident than design.
The book covers Duffy’s life from his early
days in Scotland, through his time as a coffee planter in Tanganyika, his
karate training in Japan, his movie career as an extra and stuntman, his
mercenary life in the Congo Civil War, his career as a social and news
photographer, and his participation in the abortive Seychelles coup with a
subsequent stint in jail.
The book is apparently based on stories
related by Duffy to Linscott over a series of interviews in Linscott’s home,
where Duffy was recuperating after a hip operation. A contract was signed, but
Duffy walked out of the house one day, saying that he wanted nothing more to do
with the project. He and Linscott didn’t speak for three years afterwards, with
Linscott still in the dark about what he had done wrong, or why Duffy had
walked out of the deal. None of this is covered in the book, but has been
gleaned from newspaper reports.
The book is indeed a “romp” and is told in
a light-hearted and entertaining style, but I found it somewhat lacking in
substance.
Duffy comes across as a bit of a serial
womaniser during his early years, with several tales of dalliances with the
fairer sex, some illicit and some not. It certainly appears that his sense of
adventure was not to be stifled by settling down with any one woman.
A large portion of the book covers the
attempted Seychelles coup by a bunch of mercenaries under the leadership of
Mike Hoare, and sheds some light on how the plan was hatched, and how it went
seriously wrong, leading to the hijacking of an Air India jet and its
passengers to Durban, along with the subsequent trial of those concerned and
their imprisonment and eventual release.
Unfortunately, Peter Duffy passed away on
the day the book was being sent to the printers, so we will never know what he
thought about it, and whether he considered it a true reflection of his
adventurous life. RIP Peter Duffy. – Barry Meehan
The
Life Of Mercenary Soldier Peter Duffy is published
in paperback by Nomapix (Pty) Ltd. ISBN-13: 978-0-620-72217-9
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