The If Man

"If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too: If you can …" A rollicking biography of Dr Leander Starr Jameson-hero, rogue and rascal of Empire and the man who inspired Kipling to write this masterpiece, 'If'.This famous poem by Rudyard Kipling is said to be based on the life of Jameson, and the suffering he endured as a result of the 1896 raid that he and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen carried out on Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic. In this engaging biography in the style of Wilbur Smith-meets-Louis l'Amour, Ash recounts the life of this colonial statesman known as 'Dr Jim' or simply 'The Doctor'. He was an enigmatic man.