Retired Dave pens novel
Dave's first novel, If I Retreat, Shoot Me, was published in 2015 and earned him the South African Writing Circle's Quo Vadis award for the self-publishing writer of the year.
HILLCREST’S Dave Baker will soon launch his book, The Tame Khaki, a journey of love, loss and discovery.
Dave was born and raised in Mthatha, less than 40 kilometres from the birthplace of Nelson Mandela.
Following attempts to become a geologist or lawyer, caused partly by his keen interest in sporting and social activities, Dave entered the financial services industry.
He soon qualified and found fulfillment as a manager of an insurance company and director of two international insurance brokering companies.
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During that time his extra mural interests included serving as the chairman of a Round Table and as the president of a Rotary club.
On retiring from the corporate world, Dave took up his passion, writing.
This was initially commercial writing, but after he penned 23 writing manuals for tertiary education colleges, facilitated at training seminars and led the upgrade of a leading insurance company’s policy wording, he finally began to write novels.
His first novel, If I Retreat, Shoot Me, was published in 2015 and earned him the South African Writing Circle’s Quo Vadis award for the self-publishing writer of the year.
By the time he had published his second novel, The Tame Khaki, in April 2017, he was well into his third book, The Khaki Boer.
The story revolves around protagonist, Jack Whitelaw, son of a Dorset sheep farmer.
He sets off to join a British battalion on the eve of the Anglo-Boer War and encounters a host of characters along his journey, but only one who tugs at his heartstrings – the Dutch nurse, Rachel Du Toit.
Their love affair flourishes and matures and a series of challenges confronts the two, including the constant shelling by both British and Boer guns, severe food rationing and rumours of spying.
This prompts Jack’s immediate superior and friend, Harry, to warn him that his nemesis, Laurence Phillips, will lead a drive to scrutinise the activities of all Dutch citizens.
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