EPISODE 15: BACK TO SCHOOL (PART 3 of 3), WAR AND PEACE

The final section on my school days at Prince Edward. The war comes to town and testosterone levels are on the rise. My own private rebellion finally leads me to the headmaster’s office and the end of my school days.

Photo: my first year at Prince Edward, Selous House. Aged 13 (yours truly bottom row, 2nd left).

Sound effects © AudioJungle

Episode 15 (part 2 of 3) charts my high school days at Prince Edward. Drama, elocution, art, bullying and bunking out.

Photo: Prince Edward School straw boater

Sound affects © AudioJungle.

Episode 1 (of 3) charts my schools days from Umvukwes junior school aged 6, through to Prince Edward high school.

Sound affects © AudioJungle.

In this episode, I chat via Skype with my old school friend, Spike (Andrew) Cockburn in Lombok, Indonesia.

We discuss our time at Prince Edward school in Harare in the 1970s and a few other topics of interest.

Photo © Andrew Cockburn

Sound effects © AudioJungle

Typical of any farm anywhere in the word, we always had dogs. Dogs of every breed imaginable. Some pedigree, others of the more Heinz 57 variety. We seemed to go through so many hounds over a couple of decades, it was like a Plantagenet family tree for pooches.

Photo: Libby Wood and Lara ©Libby Wood

Sound effects: AudioJungle

In this 2nd episode of CONVERSATIONS, I’m delighted to introduce my mother, Libby Wood. Following my previous chapter on the Rhodesian garden, my mum discusses her garden on Msitwe farm. 

Photo: Libby Wood, Mkushi, Zambia. ©Peter Wood

Having traveled the world and seen gardens from Dundee to Virginia, Hampshire to Sydney, and as inspiring as many of these were, none quite stood up to the glorious, wild Rhodesian garden.

Cannas (King Midas), M'sitwe farm. ©Libby Wood

My father took me on a leopard hunt when I was 4 years old.

Need I say more.

The author, M'sitwe farm, circa 1965. This leopard went rogue and had to be put down. ©Libby Wood

Sound effects ©Audiojungle

My first friend Alec Chimbata - this is his story.

Alec was my age. He was Fred and nanny’s first-born son, (now Fred was our cookboy and his wife was my nanny) and for an hour every afternoon Alec and I would have the freedom of the compound and the surrounding bush.

Over time, something intangible changed and would stay changed forever. That age of innocence was gone. As I met other kids my own age and skin colour, I started to see a world outside the confines of the farm, and my feelings for Alec shifted.

Photo: M'sitwe farm. ©Peter Wood

Sound effects ©Audiojungle

African farms echo to the sound of diesel tractors, pye-dogs barking, birdsong and lowing cattle.

In this episode I take a light-hearted dig at the sounds of Africa

Rambunctious children on M'sitwe farm. Photo ©Becky Lohan

Sound effects ©Audiojungle