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The African Adventurers: A Return to the Silent Places
Hailed as the adventure-writing successor to Hemingway and Ruark, only Peter Hathaway Capstick “can write action as cleanly and suspensefully as the best of his predecessors’ ( Sports Illustrated ). This long-awaited sequel to Death in the Silent Places brings to life four turn-of-the-century adventurers and the savage frontiers they braved.
* Frederick Selous, a British hunter, naturalist, and soldier, rewrote the history books with his fearless treks deep into Africa.
* English game ranger Constantine “Iodine” Ionides saved Tanganyikan villages from man-eating lions and leopards. He also gained lasting fame for his uncanny ability to capture black mambas, cobras, Gaboon vipers, and other deadly snakes.
* The dashing Brit Johnny Boyes who gained the chieftainship of the Kikuyu tribe with sheer bravado and survived the ferocious battles and ambushes of intertribal warfare.
* And Scottish ex-boxer, Jim Sutherland, one of the best ivory hunters who ever lived. His tracking skills and stamina afoot became the stuff of African hunting legend.
In The African A Return to the Silent Places , Capstick delivers “the kind of chilling stories that Hemingway only heard second-hand...with a flair and style that Papa himself would admire” ( Guns and Ammo ). The author’s pungent wit and his authenticity gained from years in the bush make this quartet of vintage heroics an unforgettable return to the silent places.
* Frederick Selous, a British hunter, naturalist, and soldier, rewrote the history books with his fearless treks deep into Africa.
* English game ranger Constantine “Iodine” Ionides saved Tanganyikan villages from man-eating lions and leopards. He also gained lasting fame for his uncanny ability to capture black mambas, cobras, Gaboon vipers, and other deadly snakes.
* The dashing Brit Johnny Boyes who gained the chieftainship of the Kikuyu tribe with sheer bravado and survived the ferocious battles and ambushes of intertribal warfare.
* And Scottish ex-boxer, Jim Sutherland, one of the best ivory hunters who ever lived. His tracking skills and stamina afoot became the stuff of African hunting legend.
In The African A Return to the Silent Places , Capstick delivers “the kind of chilling stories that Hemingway only heard second-hand...with a flair and style that Papa himself would admire” ( Guns and Ammo ). The author’s pungent wit and his authenticity gained from years in the bush make this quartet of vintage heroics an unforgettable return to the silent places.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published June 15, 1992
37 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
About the author
Peter Hathaway Capstick
27 books94 followersPeter Hathaway Capstick was an American hunter and author. Born in New Jersey and educated at (although did not graduate from) the University of Virginia, he walked away from a successful Wall Street career shortly before his thirtieth birthday to become a professional hunter, first in Central and South America and later (and most famously) in Africa. Capstick spent much of his life in Africa, a land he called his "source of inspiration." A chain smoker and heavy drinker, he died at age 56 from complications following heart surgery.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 7, 2019
Capstick is one of our best adventure writers. I first read some of his stories in hunting magazines back in the 1970 and 80s and became addicted. I've read most of what he's written since. Here we have stories of other African hunters and adventurers besides Capstick himself, so it's more second hand and not as powerful. But still quite interesting.
January 12, 2018
Some good stories.
April 10, 2022
Chapstick is fun to read.
March 30, 2025
Similar to Death in The Silent Places, this is a collection of short biographies. Not as full of hunting stories, this book has more of a focus on other aspects of African life.
September 6, 2015
Fascinating book, in a subject I've never paid much attention to--hunting in Africa! Well written, a little crude at times, but real to life I'm sure. The men and their stories stretch the imagination as you try and picture the real situations!
One observation, surely wide of the book's overall purpose, is the dramatic view into pagan cultures that live out human depravity to it's extremes. There is little noble and glorious about its broad view of human culture in Africa--it appears many of those peoples lived for little else than to eat or be eaten up by others. Pathetic really. But a dead-on illustration of everything the Bible says is true about the human heart.
One observation, surely wide of the book's overall purpose, is the dramatic view into pagan cultures that live out human depravity to it's extremes. There is little noble and glorious about its broad view of human culture in Africa--it appears many of those peoples lived for little else than to eat or be eaten up by others. Pathetic really. But a dead-on illustration of everything the Bible says is true about the human heart.
August 31, 2011
Another classic by Hathaway Capstick. Not so much his own stories but those of four great African hunters-Selous, Ionides, Boyes and Sutherland.
May 8, 2015
One of the Best
I liked the stories narrated in this book. It is somewhat lacking in explanation about the government entities in the colonial period in Africa.
I liked the stories narrated in this book. It is somewhat lacking in explanation about the government entities in the colonial period in Africa.
May 3, 2015
Completely derivative of the original bios. Capstick is about 10% as entertaining as he thinks he is. But at least he is self-promoting and unbearably smug.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews