There are two kinds of wars: one is external, a public war for all the world to witness; the other intensely private, glimpsed at by only a few.

When Lieutenant Michael Fuller signed up to be part of the war, leaving behind a passionate yet vulnerable relationship, he had no idea that his experience would take him beyond the guns and bombs, deep into the heart of the human spirit.

It is 1916 on the German East African frontier - surrounded by the beauty and oppressing heat of the African savanna with its guardian, Kilimanjaro, towering above the skyline, a war of words and prejudices flares up - these are early days for South African and Rhodesian regiments to be camping with men from the King's African Rifles and the Indian Baluchis. Private battles are waged as officers use the war to further their careers or cloak their pasts and a Boer War hero's son carries the weight of his father's reputation with him before he's even taken his first life.

After a devastating defeat, Fuller, two men from the King's African Rifles, a Baluchi officer and Captain Carter are called to embark on a secret mission deep into enemy territory and the African bush. To survive these men are drawn into each other's struggles with both seen and unseen enemies and made to chose between duty and compassion.

Hamilton Wende is a freelance writer and television producer. He is a regular contributor to From Our Own Correspondent on Radio 4 on the BBC. He has also contributed to the BBC World Service programme Letter. His articles have appeared in many international and South African newspapers and magazines, including National Geographic Traveler, The Chicago Tribune, Maclean's Magazine in Canada, TravelAfrica in the UK, The New Zealand Herald, The Buffalo News in the US, The Star, The Sunday Times, Business Day, The Sunday Independent in Johannesburg and many others. He has written four books:

Deadlines From the Edge: Images of War from Congo to Afghanistan. (Penguin SA 2003)
True North; African Roads Less Travelled (William Waterman 1995) was nominated for the 1995 Sunday Times Alan Paton Award.
The Quagga's Secret, (Gecko Books 1995) a children's book, was selected as one of the `1995 South African Books of the Year' by Jay Heale of Bookchat. In 1999 it was selected by Cambridge University Press in South Africa for inclusion in an English anthology of South African writing distributed nationally.
Msimangu's Words (Maskew Miller Longman 1992) was a finalist in the Young Africa Award 1992.

In television he has worked for the BBC, NBC, ABC (Australia), SBS (Australia), NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) and others. Journey Into Darkness, a documentary on the genocide in Rwanda, won the 1994 Royal Television Society's International Current Affairs Award. A Life Less Fortunate, a film on children in South African prisons, won the 1999 United Nations Association of Australia Media Award.