‘Reitz had the uncanny knack of living through the war as though leafing through the pages of an adventure story’, said Thomas Pakenham, author of The Boer War.

Not only is this equally true of the rest of Reitz’s amazingly eventful life, but he was also a gifted and compelling writer who bequeathed us a timeless heritage in three brilliant books: Commando, Trekking on and No outspan. Established bestsellers in their own right, these works are now collected as a trilogy under a title taken from Reitz’s own description of the perilous state of his Boer commando invading the Cape Colony two nights before the desperate victory over the 17^th Lancers that enabled them to survive. This trilogy captures definitively what Smuts described as ‘the wonderful romance of South Africa’.

Die Burger, 1 September 1999, Hennie Aucamp

Commando, ’n egodokument oor die Anglo-Boereoorlog, het ’n internasionale klassiek geword. Deneys Reitz … vertel ‘die storie van ons sterfte’ vanuit persoonlike belewenis, reg van die begin van die oorlog af tot aan die funeste einde …

In Trekking on en No outspan is dit dikwels die vinjette wat ’n mens die langste onthou; vir my veral die wetenswaardighede oor die veld …

’n Mens is Trevor Emslie en Stormberg Publishers dank verskuldig vir Adrift on the open veld: dit het presies op die regte tydstip verskyn.