Cock-ups, kak food and confusion: an Angolan army camp memoir

In early 1976 while working underground as a blaster on ERPM gold mine in Boksburg, Greg Latter was called up for a three-month army camp in Angola, and there was no getting out of it.

The truth is, he was actually keen to go. This story is about those three months, told from the day he received his call-up telegram to the day after he got back.  

There is nothing gung-ho in the pages of this book. It’s mainly about the cock-ups, of which there were countless, the major one involving Greg himself.

It's also about the kak food and contraband dagga, the rumours and the confusion, the stubborn dirt and the stifling heat, local Angolans and Portuguese refugees, tough guys and tortured souls. 

Written with humour and humanity, Angolsh: Scenes from an army camp evokes the atmosphere of the 1970s and tells the story of a man coming of age.

• Article provided by Penguin Random House