Word: hanley
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WARRIORS AND STRANGERS by GERALD HANLEY 319 pages. Harper...
British colonialism has produced a remarkable assortment of fruits and nuts, notably Lawrence of Arabia. But there have also been magnificent blossoms. Sir Richard Burton, the 19th century linguist and imperialist advance man, was an entire garden of delights. Gerald Hanley, the novelist and screenwriter (The Blue Max), is no Burton, although at one point in this memoir he claims to have succeeded where Burton failed-in discovering the secret of Wabaio, a potent arrow poison...
...mainly Hanley recalls a world on the wane with the grace and occasional wisdom of a man who has lived fully enough to have few regrets. At 56, he is a youngish old Africa hand. He left his native Ireland when he was 18 for life on a Kenya farm. As an officer in the British army during World War II, he helped round up Mussolini's homesick legions in northeast Africa. A more difficult job was keeping the Somali nomads from each other's throats...
...Burton had found a century earlier, the Somalis are among the bravest, vainest, crudest and also friendliest races in Africa. They possess enormous self-respect. Somalis love to fight, set great store in a killing well done, and do not mind dying. Hanley recalls coming upon a Somali who had just finished butchering a fellow tribesman. He expressed anxiety only when he realized that Hanley was not going to shoot him on the spot. "You're not going to start all that court business, are you?" asked the murderer as he was led away...
Exeter narrowed Harvard's lead to 4-2 with a breakaway goal by Sean Hanley at 3:18 of the final period. But 12 minutes later the Yardling's Jim McMahon skated down the left wing and popped a shot into the right-hand corner to give Harvard a three-goal advantage...