My name is Gary Corken. I write historical fiction about ordinary people caught in the machinery of wars.
Jim Donnelly is the protagonist of my novel A Violent Shade of Orange. He is fictional — but the world he moves through is not. The Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, St Joseph’s Industrial School in Enniskillen, the baskets at Durban harbour, the march toward the Tugela River — these are drawn from the historical record.
What follows is Jim’s story told in his own voice. A dramatised memoir rooted in the history of the Second Boer War and the men who fought it.
This is Episode One. Jim Donnelly. Belfast to the Tugela.
Jim Donnelly’s story continues in the next episode — the Battle of Colenso, December 1899. The same ground, seen from the other side, will be told by Rassi Erasmus of the Krugersdorp Commando in a future episode of this podcast.
A Violent Shade of Orange and its companion novel Mama are available on Amazon.
If you’d like to read the historical research behind these episodes, visit Sons of No Country on Substack.
