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Peter Rimmer was a British-born fiction writer (April 1937 to July 2018). His childhood was spent in the Surrey countryside until he and his brother immigrated to Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. Rimmer wrote more than 30 novels, two of which were published by Harper Collins, Zimbabwe, in the 1990s. Rimmer wrote lengthy historical family fiction sagas about people spending their lives in England and Southern African. He often referred to his novels as being 'factional' - fictional family stories based on fact. His writing is perceived to be philosophical, of how people were affected by world events and how politics influenced their lives. After Harper Collins closed its doors in Zimbabwe, no other books were published until 2014. By the late 1990s, Rimmer and his second wife had relocated from Cape Town in South Africa to a smallholding outside of Knysna in the Western Cape. There, Rimmer began writing his Brigandshaw Chronicles, a generational saga about the loves and lives of the Brigandshaw family, that spans a hundred years and more. At the time of his death, Rimmer had just begun writing his untitled 18th book in the series.

Biography
One of three children, the youngest, Rimmer was born at Paddington Hospital in London. The family home was in Ashtead, Surrey with his father co-owning a reinsurance company, Mummery, Morse, and Rimmer in London. Rimmer’s mother, a speech therapist, had a Harley Street practice, and was one of the first women speech and drama therapists of her generation.

His father died when he was eleven, hitting the family hard, but aside from crippling death duties, his mother kept the family together. Rimmer and his brother were educated at the independent school, Cranleigh.

Upon leaving school, he was called up to do his National Service. Wanting to fly aeroplanes but because of poor eyesight, he joined the photographic reconnaissance unit in Oxfordshire, becoming the youngest commissioned Pilot Officer of that time. On completion of his National Service, his life in England came to an end when he and his brother embarked on a ship for Cape Town in July 1957, their final destination Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He was never to return to England permanently.

Arriving in Rhodesia, he and his brother went tobacco farming, but Rimmer decided farming wasn’t for him and went into the insurance business working for a company in Salisbury (now Harare). In the early 1960s Rimmer met his first wife having one child, a daughter. They divorced a few years later with Rimmer moving permanently to Johannesburg in November 1969, and then incorporating his own insurance company, Rimmer Associates. The company grew to have offices not only in South Africa but also America, Australia, and Hong Kong. However, due to the theft of the company’s accounts some years later, Rimmer Associates was dissolved. It was a crushing blow to Rimmer who went on to depict the events in his novel, Vultures in the Wind.

In the mid-1970s, Rimmer moved to Cape Town involving himself in several entrepreneurial pursuits, one of which was a highly successful tent hire company which he ran with his second wife, Kathy, in the early 1980s. By the late 1980s they had bought a smallholding on the edge of the Gouna Forest in Knysna. Kathy and Rimmer separated some years later with Rimmer dying in July 2018, doing what he loved most, writing.

Writing Career
Rimmer’s love of Africa was deeply entrenched within him, having travelled extensively in southern Africa, along with many other countries throughout the world. He started writing his novels in his early twenties, submitting many manuscripts to prospective London agents and publishers, with many unfortunate rejections.

He never stopped writing throughout his business career and in 1993 after negotiations with HarperCollins, Zimbabwe, his novel, Cry of the Fish Eagle was published. A story of the Rhodesian bush war. It was very well received and reached number 2 in the Zimbabwean book charts. Thereafter, it was followed by the release of Vultures in the Wind in 1997, a story of two close friends, their lives spanning forty years of the apartheid years. HarperCollins closed their doors sometime in the 2000s and no further books were published until 2014 when Rimmer’s daughter, coming from an IT background, changed careers to self-publish her father’s novels through her company, Kamba Publishing in the United Kingdom.

Rimmer began writing the Brigandshaw Chronicles in 1998 and had completed 17 in the series at the time of his death. With Rimmer’s daughter now at the helm of the publishing business, Cry of the Fish Eagle was re-released in eBook and paperback format in 2014, followed by Vultures in the Wind. In 2015, for the first time, Rimmer’s first book in the series of the Brigandshaw Chronicles, Echoes from the Past, was released, and since then a further nine have been published. Rimmer’s grandson joined the business in 2016, delighting Rimmer now that his writing had become a family affair. Rimmer’s family continues to publish his work growing Rimmer’s readership throughout the world.

Marriages
Rimmer was married twice. His first wife, Rosemary, was born in Cheshire and sailed with her brother to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Rimmer and Rosemary met at a party at Reps Theatre in Salisbury (now Harare), marrying in April 1963 but divorcing a few years later. They had one daughter, Heather.

Rimmer’s second wife was Kathy Tennant, whom he met in a bar in Cape Town. They married in 1986 and sadly their baby son, Kim, died at birth on the 26 November 1986. After separating a number of years later, Kathy died aged forty in Johannesburg. Rimmer never got over his loss of Kathy.

Final years and death
Rimmer continued to live on his beloved smallholding on the edge of the Gouna Forest until his death. He lived a very reclusive life in his ramshackle house, writing his stories, walking in the forest plotting storyline whilst his characters chatted to him. One only begins to understand the man when reading his books.

It is believed that Rimmer had a heart attack in mid-July 2018 and was found dead by one of his close neighbours a couple of days later. He had been writing the fourth chapter of his untitled 18th book in the Brigandshaw Chronicles. Rimmer’s ashes are scattered near a small stream deep in the Gouna Forest, now named Rimmer’s Creek.

Rimmer has left a wonderful legacy, his books, which his family continues to publish and market.

Works
The Brigandshaw Chronicles The Asian Sagas Pioneers Standalone Novels
 * 1) Echoes from the Past  (2015)
 * 2) Elephant Walk (2016)
 * 3) Mad Dogs and Englishmen (2017)
 * 4) To the Manor Born  (2018)
 * 5) On the Brink of Tears   (2019)
 * 6) Treason if You Lose   (2019)
 * 7) Horns of Dilemma   (2020)
 * 8) Lady Come Home   (2020)
 * 9) The Best of Times  (2020)
 * 10) Full Circle  (2021)
 * 1) Bend with the Wind  (2015)
 * 2) Each to his Own (2020)
 * 1) Morgandale  (2020)
 * 2) Carregan’s Catch  (2020)
 * Cry of the Fish Eagle (1993)
 * Vultures in the Wind (1997)
 * ''Just the Memory of Love '’ (2017)
 * Second Beach A Novella (2018)
 * All Our Yesterdays (2020)