The River of Diamonds

The wind struck another hammer-blow. The whaler wheeled away stern-on, and then came up with a sickening thump forrard.

'One anchor cable gone ' Minnaar shouted about the roar of the wind. 'The other...'

he never finished. the whaler sprang free as the second cable parted. She had been secured facing south-west and now she plunged back into the maelstrom. The water poured ankle deep on the bridge...

'Killer deserts, grizzled prospectors, mass suicides, savage nomads... and a vanishing U-boat patrol. I enjoyed it more than any other novel for ages." -Daily Telegraph

'Top-class, fascinating, scientifically plausible... a brilliant example of how to mix the mundane and the fantastic.' -Observer

Geoffrey Jenkins was born in 1920 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa and educated in the old Transvaal, where he wrote his first book-a legal history-at the age of seventeen. After leaving school he worked as a sub-editor in Zimbabwe, later becoming a newspaperman in both Britain and South Africa. He combined a most successful career in journalism with a life-long interest in the sea, and his knowledge of ships and sailing has provided the background to many of his novels. His first novel, A Twist of Sand, was published in 1959 and immediately became a bestseller; it was later filmed. Eight more most successful novels followed having sold over five million copies in twenty-three different languages.