Graham Boynton

And still the colonial memoirs keep coming…

Peter Godwin’s third volume to date – of a family in various stages of decline after leaving their African homeland – is redeemed by its vivid evocations and erudition

Peter Godwin. [Mike Yule] 
issue 19 October 2024
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  • Exit Wounds: A Story of Love, Loss and Occasional Wars

    Peter Godwin

    Canongate, pp. 274, £20

Since the 1990s there has been a spate of post-colonial memoirs written by white Africans. The best was Rian Malan’s My Traitor’s Heart, a poetic, guilt-stricken Afrikaner confessional published on the eve of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison. Two others of note were by Rhodesian/Zimbabwean writers: Douglas Rogers’s The Last Resort and Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight.

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