The Gambler

London: Collins, 1973 With his incomparable memory for visual detail and remarkable ability to recapture past emotion, Stuart Cloete continues the narrative of his life from 1920-39. He has chosen to entitle this volume The Gambler because it deals with the most significant decision of his life - the decision to become a writer. That he hit the jackpot with his first novel and never looked back is now attested to by the string of Cloete bestsellers that have appeared the world over. But, as readers will learn, the decision at the time was both hazardous and difficult. The first part of The Gambler is a story of post-war rehabilitation, of adjustment to civilian life, to marriage. This took place on a farm in Northern France, where childhood memories and family ties made him feel at home. But increasingly Stuart Cloete felt a compulsion to identify with the land of his forebears - South Africa. Thus he bade Europe goodbye, and went out to the Transvaal, where he spent a number of years, building up run-down farms and creating a home for himself and his wife. Temperamental differences and growing incompatibility gradually drove a wedge between the couple, and it was at this time that Stuart Cloete first felt the urge to write. In the mid-1930s he took the fateful decision returned to England, and wrote his famous novel Turning Wheels. It was an instant success in America also, and it was on his way to New York to celebrate that he met his second wife. Public acclaim and private happiness now combined to launch him on the next stage of his exciting career, which he has still to chronicle. Reading copy with black-and-white photographs. Size: 5¾" Wide - 8¾" Tall