BIG READ: Brothers in arms and the scars that remain to this day
In this extract from her book, Bullet in the Heart, Beverley Roos-Muller writes about a ‘forgotten’ war still painfully present
Four brothers from the Eastern Free State, all young adults, rode to war late in 1899; three of them kept expressive, powerful and at times painfully honest diaries, the only recorded instance of this happening.
These brothers were, in order of age: Michael Muller, then Commandant Chris (both of them already married with very young children), Pieter, and the youngest, Lool, who was 22 when the war began. As part of the Ladybrand Commando they fought bravely, were captured as prisoners of war, and sent into exile. One of them did not survive. Their experiences were unique to them as individuals, yet not very different to those throughout history who have endured war and/or imprisonment — courage unremarked, of loving and longing, and later, rebuilding of their scorched world...
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