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Mud Between Your Toes is a memoir about my life - a gay, white boy growing up during the 1970s Rhodesian Bush War. This podcast started as an audio version of the book, but has now evolved into a series of conversations -- mostly of an African theme -- with characters and personalities with stories to tell. I hope you enjoy them.
Episodes

Oct 9, 2019
Oct 9, 2019
27 min
EPISODE 15: BACK TO SCHOOL (PART 3 of 3), WAR AND PEACE
The final section on my school days at Prince Edward. The war comes to town and testosterone levels are on the rise. My own private rebellion finally leads me to the headmaster’s office and the end of my school days.
Photo: my first year at Prince Edward, Selous House. Aged 13 (yours truly bottom row, 2nd left).
Sound effects © AudioJungle

Oct 2, 2019
Oct 2, 2019
28 min
Episode 15 (part 2 of 3) charts my high school days at Prince Edward. Drama, elocution, art, bullying and bunking out.
Boarding is hard at the best of times, but throw in the anxiety of a bush war, a boys only school and teenage hormones and you inevitably produce some alarming results.
Photo: Prince Edward School straw boater
Sound affects © AudioJungle.

Sep 25, 2019
Sep 25, 2019
23 min
Episode 1 (of 3) charts my schools days from Umvukwes junior school aged 6, through to Prince Edward high school.
Boarding is hard at the best of times, but throw in the anxiety of a bush war, a boys only school and teenage hormones and you inevitably produce some alarming results.
Photo: The flame lily, emblem of Umvukwes junior school
Sound affects © AudioJungle.

Sep 4, 2019
Sep 4, 2019
38 min
In this episode, I chat via Skype with my old school friend, Spike (Andrew) Cockburn in Lombok, Indonesia.
We discuss our time at Prince Edward school in Harare in the 1970s and a few other topics of interest.
Photo © Andrew Cockburn
Sound effects © AudioJungle

Aug 30, 2019
Aug 30, 2019
19 min
Typical of any farm anywhere in the word, we always had dogs. Dogs of every breed imaginable. Some pedigree, others of the more Heinz 57 variety. We seemed to go through so many hounds over a couple of decades, it was like a Plantagenet family tree for pooches.
Photo: Libby Wood and Lara ©Libby Wood
Sound effects: AudioJungle

Aug 25, 2019
Aug 25, 2019
20 min
In this 2nd episode of CONVERSATIONS, I’m delighted to introduce my mother, Libby Wood. Following my previous chapter on the Rhodesian garden, my mum discusses her garden on Msitwe farm.
Photo: Libby Wood, Mkushi, Zambia. ©Peter Wood

Aug 25, 2019
Aug 25, 2019
19 min
Having traveled the world and seen gardens from Dundee to Virginia, Hampshire to Sydney, and as inspiring as many of these were, none quite stood up to the glorious, wild Rhodesian garden.
Cannas (King Midas), M'sitwe farm. ©Libby Wood

Aug 22, 2019
Aug 22, 2019
23 min
My father took me on a leopard hunt when I was 4 years old.
Need I say more.
The author, M'sitwe farm, circa 1965. This leopard went rogue and had to be put down. ©Libby Wood
Sound effects ©Audiojungle

Aug 21, 2019
Aug 21, 2019
38 min
My first friend Alec Chimbata - this is his story.
Alec was my age. He was Fred and nanny’s first-born son, (now Fred was our cookboy and his wife was my nanny) and for an hour every afternoon Alec and I would have the freedom of the compound and the surrounding bush.
Over time, something intangible changed and would stay changed forever. That age of innocence was gone. As I met other kids my own age and skin colour, I started to see a world outside the confines of the farm, and my feelings for Alec shifted.
Photo: M'sitwe farm. ©Peter Wood
Sound effects ©Audiojungle

Aug 21, 2019
Aug 21, 2019
21 min
African farms echo to the sound of diesel tractors, pye-dogs barking, birdsong and lowing cattle.
In this episode I take a light-hearted dig at the sounds of Africa
Rambunctious children on M'sitwe farm. Photo ©Becky Lohan
Sound effects ©Audiojungle
