When I joined the B.S.A.P. as a raw recruit, Ken Flower was then Captain Flower so I never got to know him on a personal level. Although my stay in the Force was relatively short, I maintained contact with my colleagues, many of whom became high ranking officers, and when the problems really kicked off I was pulled back into the fray as a police reservist and became again for all intents and purposes a full time policeman. I mention this only to give background to the opinions I express.
Reading the book it comes as a surpise to someone who lived through those days that Flower is ever ready to criticise end denigrate those who Rhodesians regarded as their heroes - Smithy, The Selous Scouts et al. He seems prepared always to amplify the view taken by certain elements of the British and international press rather tha those expressed by his colleagues in the security services. Typical of this is his version of the brilliantly executed raid carried out by the Selous Scouts at Nyadzonya when he echoes the view that the camp may have been mainly populated by refugees or at best a low level training camp. This, despite the fact that ZANLA documents captured in a subsequent raid showed that ZANLA's analysis of the raid was virtually identical to the account given by the Scouts. In his position Flower had to be aware of this similarity.
I found his lauding of Mugabe in the closing chapters of the book quite sickening given that he was better placed than most to know the detail and extent of the atrocities sanctioned by Mugabe.
There ia another aspect. I know that senior members of the Rhodesian Special Branch believed that Flower had acted as an agent for British Intelligence and I believe that this book lends credence to that belief.
