They are people, places,
memories and pictures.
They are feelings, special moments,
smiles and laughter.
Stories by the fire
A quiet, honest memoir about survival, love and the sacred weight of an ordinary life examined closely.
Listen to a sample
I am Richard Phillips. Born in England, forged in the African Bushveld.
My writing spans two very different worlds, much like my life. On one hand, you have the raw, humorous, and often chaotic reality of life in the African wild—captured in Tails from the Bushveld.
On the other, the high-stakes, dangerous underworld of financial crime found in Illegal Tender. This is my first novel drawn from a lifetime involved in South Africa's little known but highly dangerous cash management industry that transports and protects the billions of Rands that keep the nation's economy turning every day.
Whether you are here for a laugh around the campfire or a thrill-ride through the criminal underworld, I have a story for you.
- Much love, Richard
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Memoir
Some women are built for survival before they are built for living. Jane Sutcliffe learned this truth early, in a small hut on the edges of Bradford, where order was a weapon and vigilance was currency.
She became a soldier, then a leader. She built a business from rubble, raised children alone, crossed oceans, and discovered that the life worth living is rarely the one you planned.
This is not a story of triumph against odds. It is something quieter and more honest: the story of a woman who refused to become bitter, who chose love when it finally arrived, and who understood, perhaps too late, that an ordinary life examined closely is a sacred thing.
Memoirs | African Authors
This beautifully illustrated book captures the essence of writer and explorer, Richard Phillips, and his wife, Ann. Their love for life shines through every story, showcasing the raw beauty of the lands they discovered and their diverse landscapes, peoples and cultures.
Only those who have lived and loved in Africa would understand the African meaning of "just now", which can mean anything between a few minutes and a few days. Richard Phillips was born in England but moved with his parents to South Africa when he was only six years old, soon becoming a "bushman" who understood the meaning.
Entertaining and amusing, these tales from Africa are beautifully written with fun illustrations. Told with tongue-in-cheek and a self-deprecating sense of humour, Richard's tales range from scary episodes with charging elephants, fishing - or snoring? - on a houseboat on Kariba, imagined UFOs, and being a multimillionaire in Zimbabwe.
Crime Thriller
"My first novel drawn from a lifetime involved in South Africa's little known but highly dangerous cash management industry that transports and protects the billions of Rands that keep the nation's economy turning every day."
This fast-paced tale takes place within a major British cash-in-transit (armoured car) company whose Slough operation becomes the target of a gang of skilled robbers.
Planned with military precision, the robberies are carried off by an unknown criminal syndicate who take the reader on a roller-coaster ride across England, Europe and South America. The gang finally carries off a very clever and professional robbery of a vaulted branch in the city of Slough to the south of London. They escape with a record value of British pounds, US dollars and euros as well as a consignment of diamonds.
The responsibility for the criminal investigation into the attacks lands in the lap of the Slough police. The CIO and his team pursue numerous leads and sub-stories throughout the tale but not without the assistance of an insurance investigator, Samantha Kelly.
Sam is an attractive and wily insurance underwriter working for a Lloyds syndicate in London. The magnitude of the loss places undue pressure on the insurance syndicate and Sam decides that an extraordinary effort needs to be made. The best chance of her recovering the stolen goods lies in her ability to befriend a suspected “insider”.
The story ends with considerable success on the part of the police but not without Sam's somewhat dangerous and unorthodox initiatives in pursuit of the ringleader. As the events reach a climax, a twist in the tale provides for an unexpected ending.