Philistine: A professional Soldier in Africa(1 Making a Mark)

About the Book

As one of the Specialist Pathfinders of 44 Parachute Brigade during cross-border operations into Angola in the early 1980s, they operated ahead of main forces, conducted reconnaissance, target marking, demolitions, and covert insertion tasks during the Border War. Missions included helicopter deployments, long-range patrols, infrastructure sabotage, and contact with FAPLA and SWAPO elements inside Angola within the structure of the South African Defence Force.

The author assumes familiarity with the tools and trade of soldiering and records operations as experienced

A lived record of the Angolan Bush War as part of the South African Border War, presented with historical precision and the dark humour of airborne troops but not with political reframing or retrospective moralising. Executed precisely and restrained in explanation.

For readers of military memoirs, airborne forces history, special operations, African war history, and studies of the 44 Parachute Brigade and its Pathfinders.

Volume 1 establishes the foundation for subsequent volumes covering additional theatres of War

About the Author :
Mark Griffiths is a military veteran and author whose professional life reflects extensive operational experience and a distinguished military lineage. He was born into a Royal Air Force family; his father was a Group Captain DFC and AFC, who wrote Winged Hours and Angel Visits about his escape in WWII. His family includes Adam Hart, author of Operation Pimento, and Simon Hart, author of Ungovernable: The Political Diaries of a Chief Whip. Close family includes one of the former Queen's private pilots, reinforcing a longstanding tradition of national defence and public service. Griffiths is the principal author of the Making a Mark memoir series, grounded in first-hand military experience across multiple theatres of war. His work reflects operational authority shaped by decades of service and an inherited culture of authorship and military discipline. Andrea Sartori was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the British Military Hospital. She was raised in a politically active and academically distinguished family. Both of her parents were nominated for the Government Senatorship in separate sectors in Buenos Aires, and served as Deans in their respective Faculties. Academic discipline and professional excellence formed the foundation of her upbringing. In 1974, her family emigrated to South Africa during the political instability surrounding the Peronist era. Having grown up speaking Spanish and raised in a multilingual household that included French and Italian, she later learned English upon arrival in South Africa and subsequently Afrikaans through formal schooling. She pursued Fine Arts as a field of study, initially seeking distance from the political environment of her early life. Her professional trajectory, however, returned her to institutional and regulatory work through translation, diplomatic service, and Systems Development. She met Mark Griffiths in 1995, and their shared intellectual and operational backgrounds led to a long-term professional partnership, including the development of national regulatory structures and the publication of their work. The family relocated to the United Kingdom in 2009. They have five adult children.