In the peace and paradise of a rural coastal village, two boys are born on the same day, one white, one black.
Their childhood is idyllic and their friendship lasts a life time, but the peace and paradise is short lived. South Africa transcends into anarchy, racism and civil war.
Finding themselves alone in the world, both boys embark on self-education and strive to survive in the ever-changing landscape of South Africa. Matthew Gray succeeds in building a business empire both in England and South Africa whereas Luke Mbeki travels to England to continue his education.
In 1960, on a return trip to Africa, Luke encounters his first real brush with the new apartheid system. It was not to be the first. Life becomes unbearable for Luke and he returns to England to become actively involved in the campaign for freedom of his people back home.
Meanwhile, Matt enjoys the cut-throat world of business which is thriving, becoming a well-known figurehead in South Africa but watched by the outside world perceiving him as a white supremacist but in reality he hates the apartheid system and what it stands for.
Both men's lives cross over intermittently throughout the years, until the release of Nelson Mandela. Mandela's release is a sign for men like Luke to return home, and when he does, Luke involves himself in the negotiations for a new and free South Africa, and a democratically elected government. But their story doesn't end there.
Vultures in the Wind is not only about Matt and Luke, but men like Hector Fortescue-Smyth, an English communist, and Frikkie Swart a cruel civil servant who rises through the ranks. It is the story too of the artists' colony at Port St Johns where colourful characters like Charles Farquhar and Carel van Tonder, live a basic and simple life without television sets, newspapers and just being self-sufficient living off the land and sea.
Peter Rimmer, author of Cry of the Fish Eagle, writes with passion and a deep intuitive feeling for the people of the land of South Africa. His novel, Vultures in the Wind, is the Tyranny of Democracy, and it is a part of history that should never be forgotten.
