Rough Diamond

by Robert L. Fish

Young Barney Barnato had nothing to lose when he abandoned his squalid existance in London's East End and set out for South Africa's Kimberley diamond fields to join his brother. As they began to build an empire, the likeable, quick-witted Barney made some influential friends...........and some dangerous enemies, including Cecil Rhodes, who scorned the pauper turned tycoon and tried at every turn to destroy him. The tale of Barney's struggle from unbearable poverty to unimagined riches, makes a riveting novel that blends history with fiction in the halcyon days of nineteenth-century empire building.

Genres: Fiction

360 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Robert Lloyd Fish was an American writer of crime fiction. His first novel, The Fugitive, gained him the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel in 1962, and his short story "Moonlight Gardener" was awarded the Edgar for best short story in 1972. His 1963 novel Mute Witness, written under the pseudonym Robert L. Pike, was filmed in 1968 as Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen.