The If Man : Dr Leander Starr Jameson, the Inspiration for Kipling's Masterpiece

The famous poem, If by Rudyard Kipling, is said to be based on the life of Jameson, and the suffering he endured as a result of the 1896 raid that he and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen carried out on Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic.In this engaging biography in the style of Wilbur Smith-meets-Louis l'Amour, Ash recounts the life of this colonial statesman known as `Dr Jim' or simply `The Doctor'.He was an enigmatic man. When he died The Times estimated that his astonishing personal sway over his followers was equalled only by that of Parnell, the Irish patriot.Although probably most known for his role in`The Jameson Raid', Jameson still had a successful political life.He died on 26 November 1917 in London. His body was laid in a vault at Kensal Green Cemetery where it remained until the end of the First World War.Ian Colvin (1923) writes that Jameson's body was then"... carried to Rhodesia and on 22 May 1920, laid in a grave cut in the granite on the top of the mountain which Rhodes had called `The View of the World', close beside the grave of his friend."About the AuthorA British Colonial and ex-Gordon Highlander, Chris Ash has spent much of his life in Africa, usually drilling for oil in the least pleasant places.Blessed with a love of adventure, Chris drove his Land Rover from London to Cape Town and decided to stay when he was 24.His passion for Victorian history was sparked by watching Zulu and Breaker Morrant as a child, and stoked by a drunken argument with an irate Afrikaner in Pietersburg.