Book of the Month May 2011

Historic farms of South Africa : the wool, the wheat and the wine of the 17 th and 18 th centuries / Dorothea Fairbridge

In the seventeenth century of which Miss Fairbridge wrote in this, the last volume which will appear under her name, it was not uncommon for the Printer to address the Reader. My own excuse in adding these few words to this book is the excuse of intimate friendship which covered a period of some fourteen years, which allowed me to watch, often at a distance., Miss Fairbridge at work, and which has in the end honoured me by making me her literary executor. Miss Fairbridge was what her books are. She was the most indomitable of women having all the magnanimity of outlook which is born in big spaces. Moreover her passionate love of the country in which she was born added force to her natural courage and gave also that sense of almost overwhelming spontaneity to the picturesque detail and sincerity to the background of her work. Few people know that she had already received the warning of what was destined in the end to prove fatal, before she undertook the journey she called "The Pilgrim' way in South Africa" In the book which came of it and which bore that name, there is not a sign of failing powers. On the contrary the dominant note is the exhilaration of the surroundings through which she passed ; her call of faith in South Africa was never clearer. The Pilgrams' Way was in a sense the sequel of Historic Houses of South Africa, and in that same sense this posthumous volume Historic Farms of South Africa is the continuation of both of them. I know she would wish it so to be regarded All those who read it in South Africa will realize that in this volume the central point is the personality of Willem Adriaan van der Stel, the Cape Governor of 1700, who was the object of a determined conspiracy on the part of Adam Tas, Huysing, and other burghers of the day. It will not be forgotten that it quicken interest in him and did much to remove the slur that had lain on his career in history. For her devotion to South Africa was ever quick to discover romance everywhere, but her keen historical sense was as sure never to pervert it. Van der Stel was and is the central point of the book, but gradually Miss Fairbridge's interest in the writing of it grew outwards until in the end she rechristened it with the title which it bears. Had she lived the last signs of this change of scopes would have disappeared. As it is, if readers sometimes think the title a little too large for the book, they will remember what I now tell them and will see in it not a fault but only another sign of the expansiveness and wholeheartedness of the author. John Johnson 7 Oct 1931

Source : Historic Farms of South Africa : the wool, the wheat and the wine of the 17 th and 18 th centuries / Dorothea Fairbridge

Book of the Month April 2011

Brakdak : flatroofs in the Karoo / Gabriel Fagan

This book contains photographs with brief notes on flat-roofed vernacular architecture in the Karoo. Taken during the 1950's, they portray buildings and unspoilt village scenes, many of which have suffered severe changes during the last half-century. Although change is inevitable and irrevocable, almost any visit today reveals a deteriorated environment. So apart from the sheer pleasure of recalling these scenes, this book might, in a small way, contribute to a realization of the simple beauty lost, and to a will to regain it.

Something about the author:

Gabriel Fagan was born in Cape Town on 15 th November 1925, the second son of Henry Allan Fagan and Jessie Fagan. After obtaining a B.Arch degree in 1952 at the newly established architecture faculty of the University of Pretoria, he worked for twelve years as resident architect for Volkskas Bank. To supervise the widespread new and recycled bank buildings he bought a Piper Tripacer aircraft, which he hangared on the family's small holding an through extensive flying he learn to know the topography of the country and most of the small country villages and outlying farmsteads, also from the air. In 1964 he opened an office in Cape Town, where he still runs his architectural practice. In addition to some 200 restoration projects he has many distinctive contemporary buildings to his credit.

Source : Brakdak : flatroofs in the Karoo / Gabriel Fagan

Conversations with myself / Nelson Mandela

Conversations with myself gives readers access to the private man behind the public figure: from letters written in the darkest hours of Mandela's twenty-seven years of imprisonment to the draft of an unfinished sequel to Long Walk to Freedom. Here he is making notes and even doodling during meetings, or recording troubled dreams on the desk calendar of his cell on Robben Island; writing journals while on the run during the anti-apartheid struggles of the early 1960s, or conversing with friends in almost seventy hours of recorded conversations. In these pages he is neither an icon nor a saint; here he is like you and me

An intimate journey from the first stirrings of his political conscience to his galvanizing role on the world stage, Conversations with Myself is a rare change to spend time with Nelson Mandela the man, in his own voice: direct, clear, private.

Source : Conversations with myself / Nelson Mandela

Book of the Month Jan/Feb 2011

One love, ghoema beat : inside the Cape Town Carnival / photographs and text by John Edwin Mason

Each year the coloured working class of Cape Town celebrates itself in a spectacular, lively Carnival. Historian, photographer and musician John Edwin Mason spent three Carnival seasons with one troupe, the Pennsylvanians Crooning Minstrels, becoming an ' honorary member' and marching in full troupe gear, camera in hand. He came to know several other troupes, too, among them the Fabulous Woodstock Starlites.
Mason's unique position - as an outsider with and insider's point of view - allowed him a singular documentary perspective on this inimitable cultural tradition and the people who keep it alive. He explores the Cape Town Carnival's history and records its public and private sides from within the troupe, rather than from the sidelines.
As a result, One Love, Ghoema Beat reveals aspects that outsiders rarely see - band and choir rehearsals, life in the klopskamers (clubhouses) and the making of costumes and drums. With several short essays and superb photographs, this book offers a comprehensive look at the minstrel troupes that are the exuberant face of Cape Town's Carnival

.John Edwin Mason teaches African history and history of photography at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in the United States. He has written extensively on the history of Cape Town, an interest that led him, inevitably, to the New Year Carnival. In 2007, friends invited him to join the Pennsylvanians Crooning Minstrels, a leading troupe. Recognising the Carnival's cultural importance, he gladly accepted the offer and was able to document a unique behind-the-scenes perspective on the Pennsylvanians and other troupes. As a photographer, he also contributes regularly to music and motor-sports magazines.

Source : One love, ghoema beat : inside the Cape Town Carnival / photographs and text by John Edwin Mason

Book of the Month December 2010

Evita se kossie sikelela / Evita Bezuidenhout

As die pad na versoening deur 'n land se maag loop, is Evita se boek die resep vir vrede. Die hele land - en die wye wêreled - word na haar tafel genooi waar almal saam kan smul aan geregte soos soet-en-suur pêreluitjies, aspersiekombersies, groenboontjiebredie en komynhoender met soetpatats. Wie kan skel en baklei met 'n mond vol okkerneutbolletjies of pampoenkoekies of gebakte appelnarre? Liewe aarde, na 'n rojale porsie rooiwynkonyn of tarentaal met sultanas en hanepoot kan daar net broederskap volg. Maar Tannie het aan alles gedink, want daar is ook respete vir diabete en vegetariërs, kosjer en halaal-resepte, en selfs resepte vir so 'n fietse lyf soos hare. Vir kleingoed, pieknieks, of Krismis - saam met Eviata is kokery towery vir lekkerkry.
"Om te eet, om lief te hê, om te sing en te verteer - dit is in der waarheid die vier bedrywighede waarmee ons mense ons bemoei in hierdie Opera Bouffe wat ons die lewe noem ... en wat so vlugtig is soos die borreltjies in 'n bottel sjampanje" - Rossini

Bron: Evita se kossie sikelela / Evita Bezuidenhout

Book of the Month November 2010

Embracing Hout Bay : over a century of making things happen from Dorman & Son to Mariner's Wharf and Fisherman's World

Visitors to and residents of Hout Bay will welcome this magnificently illustrated book which describes how it developed from a source of timber to the beautiful village it is today, with its world-famous Mariner's Wharf - the first such harbourfront emporium in Africa and the Southern Hemisphere - and Fisherman's World, a themed olden-days fishing village in the making.
Covering the development of the farming and fishing industries in Hout Bay, from the early days of corn and cattle, of snoek salted for sugar plantations in Mauritius and unwanted lobsters reddening the bottom of the bay, to the cultivation of vines, vegetables, butter and cream, and the advent of lobster quotas and smoked snoek, Embracing Hout Bay also deals with the many and substantial contributions made by the Dorman family since the arrival of Simon Dorman in the 1890's and their struggle against a large conglomerate determined to oust them from the fishing industry.
It is a story of triumph against adversity set against the backdrop of a family's love for the village and a determination to preserve it and its unique ambience for the future.

The editor, Gwynne Schrire, has always been passionately concerned about the importance of recording local history before the facts and stories are lost ; and has written many articles, books and family histories on the subject
Her involvement with Hout Bay dates back to warm childhood memories of walking on the beach, sliding down its sand dunes on carefully-boarded cardboard, hiking to the manganese mine, picnicking on Chapman's Peak, and many of the other activities mentioned in this book
She has also participated in an archaeological dig at the ruins of the old fort near the harbour, uncovering desiccated bones and the hinge along which a gun carriage had swivelled
Considering Hout Bay to be a mine of historical interest Gwynne was as delighted to have the opportunity of being involved in producing Embracing Hout Bay as she was to discover the efforts documented in the book which have gone into the preservation of the village and its historic cottages.

Source : Embracing Hout Bay : over a century of making things happen from Dorman & Son to Mariner's Wharf and Fisherman's World / edited by Gwynne Schrire

Book of the Month October 2010

Waar vye nog soet is : van die werf na die spens en die tafel / Emilia le Roux & Francois Smuts

Doornkraal is die plaas se naam, net duskant De Rust. Dis waar Swepie en Ann le Roux al jare lank boer. Dis waar hule kinders geleer het om van die werf te leef, al sewe van hulle. Alles op Doornkraal se eettafel kom van die plaas af. Die gerookte sonneblomsade, die botter, die ricotta ... Die vis sou pas daar in die plaasdam gebyt het, die kweperlekkers flussies nog vrugte gewees het wat swaargeel in die heining vol vinke gehang het en die room sou daardie oggend nog die separator se hart laat klink-klink-klink- het ...
Emilia le Roux is een van die sewe kinders wat op Doornkraal se grond mens geword het. Sy en haar man, Francois Smuts, het hierdie boek geskryf vir elkeen wat hunker na die grond, en elkeen wat wil bak en brou soos in 'n plaaskombuis. Die boek is nie net 'n kookboek nie, maar ook 'n aardse selfhelpboek wat jou leer plant en natmaak en bemes en grootmaak en sorg. Dis 'n boek wat jou sal inspireer om weer mt die aarde kennis te maak en eenvoudig en sielvol te leef.

Bron : Waar vye nog soet is : van die werf na die spens en die tafel / Emilia le Roux & Francois Smuts