Kevin Thomas

Kevin Thomas (1950 - ) a fifth generation African, was born in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and after leaving school in 1968 he joined the Rhodesian Department of National Parks & Wildlife Management as a game ranger. After 6 years service as a game ranger, of which 3 were in the Zambezi Valley. However, with the Rhodesian Bush War escalating, in late 1973 he left the department and joined the regular Rhodesian Army. As a founder member of the elite Selous Scouts, he served for just over 3 years on operations, and for 2 years as a counter insurgency instructor in the unit's Training Wing. In 1979, and towards the end of the war he left the army and returned to a wildlife management & safari career. For over four decades, Kevin worked across most of Southern Africa in the safari field, and in addition he spent two years (2004 to 2006) in Iraq working in the Close Protection field on contract to the US DOD with a British security company, Erinys Iraq. In 2000 Kevin & his wife Brenda relocated to South Africa from Zimbabwe, and bought a house in the quaint Eastern Cape British 1820 Settler Village of Bathurst. As a safari operator, Kevin continued to base himself in Zimbabwe on a seasonal basis, until the end of 2013, when he decided to close his safari business and turn to full time writing. Kevin first started writing for various international outdoor magazines during 1993, and in 2008 had his first book, the well-received semi-autobiography 'Shadows in an African Twilight' published. This was followed by his second book 'Tracking the Memory - Tales of Hunting' in 2011, and his third book 'The Hunting Game' was published in 2015. He recently added another chapter to The Hunting Game, and the updated edition is now available on Amazon. His fourth book, 'There's Something About Buffalo' was first published in 2018, and it includes stories by a number of contributing authors. All four books are available in conventional paperback format, and as Ebooks on KDP Amazon.com. He is currently working on three more non-fiction book manuscripts, two of which he hopes to complete in the near future. He's also made a start on a fictitious novel, a first attempt at fiction writing. Obviously, and because of Kevin's background the novel is set in Africa. In October 2015 he and Brenda sold up in South Africa and relocated to the UK to be closer to family. They have a 60' live aboard narrowboat, and although based at a marina in Wiltshire, have every intention of exploring as much as they can of the 2,000 miles of navigable waterways & canals the UK has to offer. Kevin's main hobbies, aside from writing, are photography and art.