Kaiser-Wilhelm-Spitze — I was there in 1958 — the highest point of the old German Empire
“Kilimanjaro is a snow-covered mountain 19,710 feet high, and is said to be the highest mountain in Africa. Its western summit is called the Masai “Ngaje Ngai,” the House of God. Close to the western summit there is the dried and frozen carcass of a leopard. No one has explained what the leopard was seeking at that altitude.” The Snows of Kilimanjaro
I don’t know if Hemingway ever got to the top of Kilimanjaro but he immortalized the frozen carcass of the leopard and the eternal question of what this creature was doing at such an altitude in his wonderful work of fiction.
For me, since my descent of the peak of Kibo, some would say, all has been downhill, on the other hand who’s to know? What was I seeking? My carcass would not have been as attractive as the remains of the leopard. I can remember when I reached the summit, I left my name: Care of New Guinea Company, Rabaul, Territory of Papua and New Guinea — perhaps out of respect to the former German Colony of New Guinea.
What of some of the other ex-colonials from PNG and their aspirations — Is the Commander Twist Semites and swastikas awaiting the reincarnation of the Fuhrer? Is the Captain among the old diggers in Collaroy/Narrabeen looking forward to the Rapture and the coming of the Lord? For the Captain, it’s the beatific vision and for the Commander, it is Aryan beauty — both sublime and heavenly!
It has been said that a lot of ex-expats from PNG suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I ,of course, don’t believe this — there’s nothing wrong with me, the Commander or the Captain. We are all quite sane, it’s just that what we want is not always what the rest of society wants. What does that make of the rest of society?
Getting back to my original question and Ernest’s, what was that old leopard doing at such a height? In Robert Browning’s words: “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, or what’s a heaven for?” The beast went beyond where food could be found and died. This will not happen to the Captain, Commander or me — we all live on pensions — we will die, but not, I think, from hunger.
The sheer scope of our endeavour, is in some ways alike to the leopard, surely this is something to be admired.
Are we seeking a return of colonial glory in PNG? I’ll leave this question to my readers to answer. Are we headed for the nuthouse or eternal life?
Twixt Semites and swastikas: Temlett Conibeer’s greatest challenge
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Book cover – A.C.T. Marke’s novel
Twixt Semites and swastikas: Temlett Conibeer’s greatest challenge.
Fans of Andrew Marke’s writing and his fictional character, Temlett Conibeer, will be pleased to hear that he has produced another novel following on from his previous two: Love on the Run and Love in a Hot Climate.
If anything Marke has excelled himself with his latest work: Twixt Semites and swastikas: Temlett Conibeer’s greatest challenge.
It has all the excitement of Ira Levin’s thriller: The Boys from Brazil — a somewhat stranger setting in Papua New Guinea – a juxtaposition of the Third Reich with a primitive land in the upper reaches of the Sepik River.
There is something of a boy’s own adventure about this tale and the love scenes between Temlett and Lena are droll and hilarious without meaning to be. There’s really nothing of Dax from Harold Robbins’ The Adventurers in Temlett Conibeer. No one could say that women trembled at the power in Temlett’s loins! However Marke’s repeated descriptions of the way Lena wore her shorts that emphasized ‘her hips and bottom,[ making her] gorgeous’ leads to some steamy passion if not to sexual climax; because of Temlett’s Victorian moral values in not as it were breaching the protocol. Near the end Lena offers Temlett the gift of her virginity!
The allure and attraction of the beautiful young East German, Lena Adler, some would say, is just too much for Temlett Conibeer, even if she appears to save him from circumstances created by his own naivety. But in clearing himself of a murder charge he somehow ends up in deeper trouble..
The resolution of the mystery surrounding the death of Sandra Donnigan must be made for Conibeer to clear his name. The run ins with the malignant Hoss and the frightening Gluwitz, two Nazi characters that engender the novel with the forces of evil, are two people who Lena and Temlett have to face!
Adler and Conibeer are both challenged by a New Guinea at its rawest in their trek to the centre of the island. It is on this journey that the writer’s descriptive powers and knowledge of the country are at their best – the natural beauty and the characters in a pre-independence PNG come alive.
This novel is guaranteed to satisfy the discerning reader who appreciates an intriguing plot set in imaginative circumstances, and the ending chapters presenting us with a thoughtful, nostalgic and contemplative Temlett Conibeer are memorable!
We are left wondering: what does the future hold for Conibeer?
Orders can be placed with Frogmouth Press at mobile: 0428833212 or email: frogmouth07@live.com.au
187 Low Head Road, Low Head Tas 7253
$30.00 Posted $35.00
See: https://deberigny.wordpress.com/2010/12/09/search-for-mrs-right/#comments
http://asopa.typepad.com/asopa_people/2011/04/love-on-the-run-in-a-hot-climate.html
Professor Hank Nelson comments
Letter from Professor Hank Nelson
I was so grateful to receive the above from Hank Nelson. The now late Professor Hank Nelson was a wonderful man and great academic.
See: http://ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ssgm/nelson-obituary/index.php
Stories by David Wall 
Take up the challenge and read A.C.T. Marke’s latest !
October 4, 2012 at 4:21 am (A.C.T. Marke, Adolf Hitler, Book review, Commentary, expatriates, Fiction, Love in a hot climate, Love on the Run, Papua New Guinea, Temlett Conibeer, Third Reich)
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A.C.T. Marke
See: https://deberigny.wordpress.com/2012/08/10/twixt-semites-and-swastikas-temlett-conibeers-greatest-challenge/#respond
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