{{Short description|South African author}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Peter Stiff | image = | birth_date = {{birth date|1933|9|8|df=y}} | birth_place = London, United Kingdom | death_date = {{death date and age|2016|4|27|1933|9|8|df=y}} | death_place = | occupation = Author | children = 4 }} '''Peter Stiff''' (8 September 1933 – 27 April 2016) was a London-born South African best-selling author of both fiction and non fiction.
== Biography == Peter lived in Rhodesia for 28 years and served as a regular policeman for 20 years in the elite British South Africa Police, from which he retired as a superintendent in 1972. He moved to South Africa in 1980 after the fall of Rhodesia and the rise of Robert Mugabe and his ZANU-PF.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Reading Zimbabwe {{!}} Peter Stiff|url=https://readingzimbabwe.com/authors/peter-stiff|access-date=2020-11-25|website=readingzimbabwe.com}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Writer Peter Stiff dies |url=https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-mercury-south-africa/20160429/282703341287409|access-date=2020-11-27|via=PressReader}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Adelmann|first=Martin|date=2004|title=Quiet Diplomacy: The Reasons behind Mbeki's Zimbabwe Policy|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40175024|journal=Africa Spectrum|volume=39|issue=2|pages=249–276|jstor=40175024 |issn=0002-0397}}</ref>
Peter was specialized in contemporary warfare and politics in the southern African sub-continent and authored books extensively on the bush war in the former Rhodesia, the ongoing conflict in Angola and the Namibian bush war, on the collapse of Portuguese power in Angola and Mozambique and much else as well.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Galago|url=http://www.galago.co.za/author_pstiff.htm|access-date=2020-11-25|website=www.galago.co.za}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Cockington|first=James|date=2009-05-20|title=A record of regimental ties|url=https://www.smh.com.au/business/a-record-of-regimental-ties-20090520-gdtjhk.html|access-date=2020-10-25|website=The Sydney Morning Herald|language=en}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=The Rain Goddess, by Peter Stiff vorgestellt im Namibiana Buchdepot|url=https://www.namibiana.de/namibia-information/literaturauszuege/titel/the-rain-goddess-peter-stiff-9781919854069-978-1-919854-06-9.html|access-date=2020-11-29|website=www.namibiana.de}}</ref>
== Books == Source:<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Stiff, Peter|url=http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n85065902/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=worldcat.org}}</ref> * ''The Rain Goddess'': Set in the war-torn area of Rhodesia's (before 1966, Southern Rhodesia; now Zimbabwe) North-East border, a region which the Rhodesian military staff called "Hurricane",<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VHRKCAAAQBAJ&q=hurricane+rhodesia&pg=PT25|title=Counter-Insurgency in Rhodesia (RLE: Terrorism and Insurgency)|last=Cilliers|first=Jakkie|date=2015-04-17|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317499244|language=en}}</ref> the story takes place during the mid-1960s to early 1970s,{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} as the British South Africa Police fight against communist-backed guerillas. These guerrillas use torture and violence to intimidate African tribesmen into joining their cause.{{citation needed|date=February 2022}} The Rhodesian Security forces fight to keep a fragile peace that is governed by force of arms, as well as by the tribesmens' faith in the predictions of their spirit medium. This medium is said to be able to communicate with the spirit of the Rain Goddess. While the book was originally written as fiction, many of the events in the book are taken from actual events with some names of persons and places changed.<ref>Chennells, A. J. "Essay Review: The Treatment of the Rhodesian War in Recent Rhodesian Novels", University of Rhodesia, ''[http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Journal%20of%20the%20University%20of%20Zimbabwe/vol5n2/juz005002011.pdf Michigan State University Library Archives]'', 1977, p.192-196.</ref> * ''Selous Scouts: Top Secret War'' * ''See you in November'' * ''The Covert War''<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2009-08-26|title=Book Review: The Covert War|url=https://www.defenceweb.co.za/resources/book-reviews/book-review-the-covert-war/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-29|website=defenceWeb|language=en-ZA}}</ref> * ''Taming the Landmine'' * ''Nine Days of War'' * ''The Silent War: South African Recce Operations 1969–1994'' * ''Cry Zimbabwe: Independence – Twenty Years on'' * ''Warfare by Other Means: South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s''
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stiff, Peter}} Category:1933 births Category:2016 deaths Category:Writers from London Category:20th-century South African male writers Category:British South Africa Police officers