Roger Russell

Biography

Born in 1947 in Eldoret, Kenya Roger attended school in Bournemouth, UK and St David’s College in Johannesburg, SA.
Roger Russell fell into a long drop toilet when he was three years old, out of a car when he was four. He went on to almost drown himself at six, cut through his left leg when he was seven and crush his right arm when he was nine. By the time he was eleven he had spent over a year in hospital and had been the recipient of many hundreds of stitches. He was banned from playing soccer or rugby and could not run to save his life. He started in the mines at nineteen and lost his finger in an accident before a month had passed. He joined the U/G Rescue team and was gassed, trapped and lost underground within the space of a single year. Roger married in 1968 and is the father of four children by his first wife, Sharon, to whom he was happily married for twenty five years before she died of cancer in 1993. He has since remarried and lives with Cynthia on a 30 foot motor cruiser in Hermitage Marina near St Ives in the UK. They have one child, a boy named Gordon after Roger’s father. In 1993, after the death of his wife, Roger walked from Beit Bridge on the Northern border of South Africa to Cape Town, a distance of 2000km. He slept alongside the road and walked alone and un-armed through one of the worst political times the country had ever seen. He saw then and has continued to see immense power in common people. In 1999 he walked right around South Africa to support a much maligned South African Police Services. He was mugged by a squatter camp gang, attacked by a policeman in a remote station in the Transkei and swept away in a flash flood in the Orange Free State. He has seen police barracks that were worse than some prison cells, met and spoken with criminals, saints and politicians. The British media called him a South African hero and Steve Tshwete, the South African Minister of Safety and Security at the time said he was truly a South African patriot. Roger has also walked in America on two occasions, promoting South Africa and cancer awareness to the people of California, Nevada, New Mexico and other states. Roger has written several books all of which he plans to publish with Smashwords in time.

Smashwords Interview

What inspires you to get out of bed each day?
The day is an unknown quantity. You need to get out there to find out what is waiting for you.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I was born in a farming district in Kenya, transposed to a suburb of Johannesburg and finally a mining town in the Transvaal (SA). I never had a chance to make a lot of friends. My friends were the people that walked the pages of the books I read.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Roger Russell online

Facebook: Facebook profile

Books

Salvation: A Return to Eden
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 45,030. Language: English. Published: May 31, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Epic
The Illuminati predict a future return to the Garden of Eden, Malik will be the new Adam bringing the five ancient books of the founders together to restore the Tree of Life and bring mankind back to God. The Chronicles, a corruption of Islam promoted by ISIS wants to keep control of humanity and led by the Devil must eliminate Malik. But Malik finds himself far below the surface of the earth…
The Studio
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,770. Language: British English. Published: June 9, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Science fiction » Short stories
Despite the power of modern communication we must still wonder at the use we make of our information. News reports start with pictures of war cemeteries in Europe followed by graphic details of slaughter in the Sudan and end with massive profits earned by big business? We must ask ourselves are we not learned enough, technical enough and rich enough to build a better world; It seems not…
Headlong Into Darkness
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 3,890. Language: English. Published: April 11, 2014 . Categories: Essay » Technology
We are on a fast track ride into the future. The speed of change is exponential and the predictions of just yesterday are today already outdated. In the light of new cyber technology space travel is unnecessary, the world has become a single massive brain and our ideas of how we will live in the future are completely invalid. This is not fiction. Some food for thought…
Somewhere Over a Rainbow
Price: Free! Words: 2,620. Language: English. Published: April 3, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Inspirational, Fiction » Themes & motifs » Spiritual & metaphysical
Sometimes life looks to be really awful and we seek a little relief by walking and thinking. This man died being transported to Australia but now he knows something and wants to share it…
Desolate Journey
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 20,550. Language: English. Published: March 10, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » LGBTQ+ » Gay, Fiction » Themes & motifs » Psychological
Quinton is a young man from a wealthy family in South Africa exploring his sexuality. His experiments lead him to the violent world of Hillbrow, Johannesburg and some hard lessons on the realities of an alternative lifestyle. When he finally goes home it is to find that nothing can ever be the same again. This book contains gay sex scenes, some brutal. If you are at all sensitive do not read it.
Who is Amen: African Warrior?
Price: Free! Words: 1,510. Language: English. Published: February 21, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Themes & motifs » Psychological
An analysis of the makeup of Amen; the rider on the pale horse – See AFRICAN WARRIOR published on Smashwords by Roger Russell.
Footbridge
Price: $3.99 USD. Words: 67,330. Language: English. Published: February 17, 2014 . Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Personal memoir, Nonfiction » History » Africa » Africa / South / Republic of South Africa
This is the story of one man’s walk around South Africa undertaken in 1999 in support of the South African Police Services; a first-hand account of the state of Police Service stations and the mind-set of a country. This is an intimate picture of the South African public, the remnants of Apartheid and the streets of SA like few you will ever read…
Living in the Dark
Price: $2.99 USD. Words: 36,130. Language: English. Published: February 4, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Anthologies » Short stories - single author, Nonfiction » Biography » Biographical anthologies
A collection of short stories and some poems written in Africa; some are real and some fictional. Most of them are based on events that happened far below the surface of the earth in a world that is in fact stranger than fiction. They are of random events and thoughts with no particular theme.
African Warrior
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 91,770. Language: English. Published: January 26, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Adventure » Action, Fiction » Adventure » General
Herman is raised by villagers on a farm in Zambia where he develops a killing instinct. He is taken away and sent to an English College. He must conquer his nature by learning to control it. Then he joins the woman he loves in Jakarta, Indonesia… The story of Herman explores the need to remove that which threatens us and our beliefs. It asks the question again; does the end ever justify the means
Cold Truth
Price: $0.99 USD. Words: 20,820. Language: British English. Published: October 30, 2013 . Categories: Nonfiction » Business & Economics » Workplace culture
Miners are hard men working in deep dangerous places or in open pits with massive machinery. Most people on the face are good people. The men at the top of the corporations are not so likeable. They work for shareholders. Shareholders have no interest in what their directors do to generate the returns they seek as long as they don’t spend money but death is always there; waiting for an open door…
Once Upon a Time in a Crystal Cave
Price: Free! Words: 8,800. Language: British English. Published: October 28, 2013 . Categories: Nonfiction » Science & Nature » Earth Sciences / Mineralogy, Nonfiction » History » Biography
(3.00 from 1 review)
Tsumeb mine has been worked by men since long ago. In the copper there are many other minerals. This unique mix is responsible for an ore body with one of the most prolific assortment of crystal specimens in the world. The lure of wealth from the recovery and sale of these much sought after and beautiful specimens is real. These tales are about crystal fever and the people affected by it.