Breaker Morant

De: Peter FitzSimons

Narrado por: Cameron Goodall

The epic story of the Boer War and Harry 'Breaker' Morant: drover, horseman, bush poet - murderer or hero?

Most Australians have heard of the Boer War of 1899 to 1902 and of Harry 'Breaker' Morant, a figure who rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. Born in England and emigrating to Queensland in 1883 in his early 20s, Morant was a charming but reckless man who established a reputation as a rider, polo player and writer. He submitted ballads to The Bulletin that were published under the name 'The Breaker' and counted Banjo Paterson as a friend. When appeals were made for horsemen to serve in the war in South Africa, Morant joined up, first with the South Australian Mounted Rifles and then with a South African irregular unit, the Bushveldt Carbineers.

In October 1901 Morant and two other Australians, Lieutenants Peter Handcock and George Witton, were arrested for the murder of Boer prisoners. Morant and Handcock were court-martialled and executed in February 1902 as the Boer War was in its closing stages, but the debate over their convictions continues to this day.

Does Breaker Morant deserve his iconic status? Who was Harry Morant? What events and passions led him to a conflict that was essentially an Imperial war, played out on a distant continent under a foreign flag? Was he a scapegoat for British war crimes or a criminal himself?

With his trademark brilliant command of story, Peter FitzSimons unravels the many myths and fictions that surround the life of Harry Morant. The truths FitzSimons uncovers about 'The Breaker' and the part he played in the Boer War are astonishing - and, in the hands of this master storyteller, make compelling listening.

©2020 Peter FitzSimons (P)2020 Hachette Australia Pty Ltd

Good but long

The first half was a little long and drawn out. Phenomonal performance, though. Very interesting (and true) story.

Give it a chance

I originally purchased this book but returned it after it initially failed to capture my interest. Then after considering the the author (whose books I thoroughly enjoy) and the great reviews, I decided to give it another chance. I’m glad I did! It eventually unfolded into a wonderful tale of history and brutal truth about a war a originally knew nothing about. Bravo Peter!!

Horrors of war

The story is extraordinary. The narrator unmatched in talent and skill.
The brutality of war is astounding woven throughout this epic story.

Could have been a good book...

I was looking forwards to listening to this book as I am very familiar with the incident and the war in general. Sadly, as South African, I could not stomach the utterly horrendous South African/Afrikaans/Dutch accents the narrator insisted on using. Beyond, brutal, I could not get through the first two hours...

FitzSimons' Hubris Undercuts the Project

It's a long story, and very well narrated, and perhaps a bit misleading, as less than a quarter of it relates directly to Morant.
You can feel the research here. The problem is that FitzSimons takes advantages of the allowances we make in CNF for reconstruction/invention, taking it too far, especially in terms of inserting subject defining lines that might strike even the careful reader as POV moments, perhaps based on the actual research. When you stop and consider them, you realize he's assigning thoughts/feelings to these situations that are his own but presenting them as if they belong to the players. It might seem a small thing, but they are pandering and self serving in that they fit his overall thesis.
Ultimately, he stands between the reader and the data by simply interpreting it himself and then imposing his vision--hopefully at least achieved honestly--through these insertions, so that by the end of the thing you come to doubt him all together.
He has a number of books on historically subjects I find interesting, such as the Bounty mutiny, but he's lost my trust.

Les than good narration.

Narration is rather high pitched, pronunciation mostly acceptable, but too often garbled, sentence endings, owing to drops in volume, decipherable—overall, a bit wonky.

Content appears comprehensive, overly so.

Needs lots of cutting. Opening chapters repeat over and over again leading character’s—called “Breaker—his ethical shortfalls and egotistical, selfish, disrespectable, abusive lack of ethics and repulsive, ingrained values and behaviors. Among them: womanizing, grifting, bragging ad nauseum, occasional, gratuitous bullying and abuse of others, mendaciousness, lack of proactive orientation and lack of pursuit of honorable objectives, lethargy, shirking responsibility. Overall, he appears to be a “borderline personality, wha mental health experts previously categorized as “psycho- or sociopathic.” This particular personality type is usually difficult to treat, owing to their shrewd, effective gaming, manipulation, and seductive personalities. They so often come across as genuine, charismatic, and seductive. Accordingly, they are so very often consummately seductive and convincing, and able to con others into being empathic, generous, and unknowing enablers. They have little or no conscience affecting bogus sincerity and pity me victimhood. Before you know it, they have your wallet, possessions, lovers and mates, and swindle your colleagues, creditors, and, without your knowing, trade on your reputation to pilfer your assets—all without your suspecting trickery until it is too late.

Apparently, Breaker was one of those types, or sufficiently nearly so, to do harm to many people.

Accordingly, he was extremely successful in seducing countless young and older married and unmarried women without caring a hoot about the consequences to their reputations, feelings, family dynamics, mates’ and families’ You are familiar, of course with the “Good News Bears,” well apparently convincingly a “Bad News Skunk,” which may strike us overly dramatic opprobrium, but it isn’t.
As someone who has had some limited, but mentored experience, conducting icursory intake mentally afflicted people of different personality types, rom my quasi-professional training and mentorship, I assure the reader that these people are very often heartless and abscond with innocents emotional and material resources and actually feel triumphant in doing this I admit I may be exaggerating, but not by much, I know from limited but informed, vetted experience.

Getting back to the audio review, it strikes me that the author described epeatedly and excessively Breaker’s despicable;less absence of humane values, manipulatively strategies and tactics, and, of course, didn’t care dung about hurting others. In my view, although I object to death penalties, I’m almost willing to take exception. I certainly would not want this character among my friends and family.

Disappointing

I really wanted to know more about the Boer Wars, and this may have been fine as a short story. As a full-length book it really dragged. Besides being repetitive and overly dramatized, the "poetry" was awful and it featured way too prominently. I'm assuming the poetry was written by Morant but whoever wrote it, I hated it.