Reading, Exploring and Piffling with Hugh in 2021, part 4

My set-up (Firefox, Windows, slow laptop) has the annoying habit of showing the unread messages in picture-heavy threads for just one second before bouncing back to a random post (or several) as it loads pictures slowly. It's done that on my own thread once too often, and it seems to me that if I start a new one now I'll be correctly placed to start afresh in January.

Good luck and happy reading with your new thread. Enjoy the freedom for rapid loading until you populate your thread with a few of your wonderful pictures.

The Life and Times of George III. Another in the series of British Kings and Queens. Here we see the modern world beginning to take shape. This George had porphyria, which didn't help him control his ministers. This may or may not have contributed to the American colonies deciding that they needed to fight (successfully) for independence.

The Cat Who Sang for the Birds. A typical, enjoyable 'Cat Who' story. Wise Koko understands quickly that the County Commissioner is the ultimate cause of an arson attack, a murder and other unsavoury goings on in and around "Pickax, Moose County, 400 miles north of everywhere". As usual, he has great difficulty getting through to the stoopid hoomins he owns.

>2 pgmcc: Thank you, Peter! Not sure my pictures count as "wonderful", though.

>5 hfglen: Your pictures are full of wonders, therefore they are wonderful. I for one always enjoy seeing them and reading the stories behind them.

>5 hfglen: What Claire said.

>6 Sakerfalcon: >7 pgmcc: You are both too kind; thank you!

A question for the brains trust:

I have just discovered in the last day or 2, an archive of old pictures of libraries, such as Barberton library in 1954 and Springs (East Rand) library in 1945. Would it mess up LT intolerably if I were to request copies and post them in LT local?

The Tipping Point. Not, actually, what I was expecting. The news has been full of stories of global warming reaching a tipping point and about to pitch us into a disaster. The thought that this might be the theme of this book is reinforced by the cover, which features a picture of a match. It isn't at all; it's about how fashions and fads start. Ah well (but maybe this one is a candidate for the 'inappropriate covers' thread).

After >2 pgmcc:'s and >6 Sakerfalcon:'s kind words, how can I forbear to supply a picture; this time of what I consider to be a remarkable site.



This is the Tswaing Meteor Crater, known at the time the photo was taken as Pretoria Salt Pan and held at that time (July 1972) to be volcanic. More recent studies have revealed shattered rock typical of impact structures, and no evidence of volcanism. The impact is thought to have happened some 200 000 years ago, and to have hit a briny aquifer -- hence the salt. The crater covers about the same area as the famous one in Arizona (the tourist sight I most wanted to see when I first learned of it, little knowing -- nobody did at the time -- that its twin was just an hour's ride from home). More recently, this is the site of one of the key scenes in Light Across Time, which I have enthused about often enough in this pub.

>11 hfglen: Another fascinating photograph with accompanying fascinating history. Also, what would have been a book-bullet had the book been available anywhere. "Rogue Male" is the only Tom Learmont book I can find. There is no Touchstone for his "Rogue Male".

>12 pgmcc: You are not the only one to have searched in vain.

Cromwell: Portrait of a Soldier An interesting counterpoint to the rather royalist biographies in the Kings and Queens of England series, notably The Life and Times of Charles I and The Life and Times of Charles II. The author, John Gillingham, is a self-confessed (in the book) Roundhead supporter. The book itself is short (142 pages of actual text) and a quick read, though possibly not as unbiased as one might wish.

Would I read another by this author? I see I have, according to my LT catalogue.
Would I recommend this book? Not before reading Antonia Fraser's biography of Cromwell for comparison.
To whom? History buffs.

>1 hfglen: I thought it was just me! That happens to me too.

Happy Equinox, everybody! Days are getting longer and trees greener here. Doubtless the other way up in the north.

>11 hfglen: Very cool, and happy new thread.

Happy Equinox to you as well! (Ours is still 19 hours away.)

>11 hfglen: Fascinating! I have seen the crater in Arizona, so now I feel I must add seeing its twin to my bucket list.

>18 Sakerfalcon: Good idea, but don't go alone! The township alongside is noted as a high-crime area.

Kruger, Kommandos and Kak No, you do not want an English translation of the title. Use your imagination.

Refreshingly and most unusually, the author sets out his bias in the back-cover blurb, and in more detail in the author's note that precedes the main text. His purpose is to examine "received wisdom" about the Boer War by comparing it with published statistics from both sides. The said "received wisdom" seldom if ever matches readily-discovered facts, and is shown to be twisted propaganda designed to serve the apartheid government. Highly probable, but probably best not discussed here; rather read the book.

What is clear, and is independently verified from other sources (try, for example, Storm over the Transvaal by T.V. Bulpin for an account of the Selati Railway scam) is that Kruger's clique was anti-democratic, semi-literate, every bit as corrupt as a more recent president in this country and essentially pro-slavery. History has repeated itself, notably in 1948 and, with change of colour, in 2008.

Unfortunately the rather minor publisher apparently cannot afford to employ a copy editor or a proofreader, and every now and then it shows. (No sir, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not spell his name with a hyphen; this error is at least consistent throughout the book.) Nevertheless, this book is a good and necessary read. That said, one must apologise for the political content of this note.

Would I read another by this author: Yes, if I can find one.
Would I recommend this book: I rather think I just have.
To whom: anyone interested in one of the key events in South African history.

>20 hfglen: You have got me with another hard-to-obtain book. (I suspect that the history of the Boer War that I was taught at scholol was also biased. but probably in a rather different direction...)

>21 -pilgrim-: *notches corner of keyboard* Apparently there's a revised and expanded version called Kruger's War: the truth behind the myths of the Boer War. This may or may not be marginally easier to find -- I have it in mind to start looking for a copy.

It's such a beautiful day I'm inspired to go to a local beauty spot. This is the estuary of the Amatikulu River, about 140 km up the coast (towards Mozambique) from home.

>23 hfglen: Very nice. It looks very tranquil.

>21 -pilgrim-: PS. I was going to suggest that you try to locate a copy of the (rather elderly) Storm over the Transvaal while looking for one or other of the Chris Ash books. But I see you have resolved the original question. However Bulpin gives the most comprehensible version I know of the Selati Railway scam (which was nothing unusual in Kruger's republic, except that the perpetrators eventually got caught); Bulpin's style is also easily readable.

>25 hfglen: Am right now listening to a history of the Boer War thsy I found on BBC Sounds. Apparently it was broadcast by the World Service.

ETA: It includes an interview with a lady who remembers being in Mafeking during the siege!

>26 -pilgrim-: Recorded some time ago, then. If it was recently recorded, she'd need to be about 130 years old, or more!

>27 hfglen: She was 109. Sorry, didn't intend to imply that the programme was made recently - it was just the synchroniiciry odd my listening as you posted that struck me.

Belated happy new thread wishes, Hugh.

>29 humouress: Thank you!

Life Imitates Art department: A headline in this morning's Independent Online reminds me strongly of Tiffany Aching. Anybody else reminded of The Wee Free Men?

>30 hfglen: There is definitely a culture divide somewhere. That article said the burglar was weilding a panga. I looked up panga on Google and this is the definition: "The Panga is a type of modest-sized, open, outboard-powered, fishing boat"

That is a remarkable burglar, and his weapon of choice is unique.

>31 MrsLee: The word also signifies a local form of machete.

>32 hfglen:
"...also signifies a local form of machete, which is the shape and size of a modest-sized, open, outboard-powered, fishing boat"

>32 hfglen: I figured it was something like that.

>33 pgmcc: lol

>34 MrsLee: As opposed, of course, to a Panga-panga, which is a high-quality hardwood timber tree from Central Africa.

But of course.

And now for something completely different.



This is one of the first western-style stone houses to be built north of the Orange (Gariep) River, and can be seen at Seoding, near Kuruman in the Northern Cape. It was built for the missionary Robert Moffat, and is where the explorer David Livingstone met and in 1845 married Moffat's daughter Mary.

>37 hfglen: Long ago I think I read a biography of the Moffats, but I remember only that. Pretty house. Is it made of stones, or handmade bricks?

>38 MrsLee: It's made of stone. Bit hard to tell pgmcc what kind of stone, as my sources tell me that the geology is mostly "iron-rich sediments", but with an important deposit of dolomite close to the house (hence a very generous spring called the Eye of Kuruman), and some fragments of Tiger's Eye.

I have the impression that biographies of the Moffats and David Livingstone are a dime a dozen in southern Africa, but there's no reason why they should be common or even interesting in northern California.

>39 hfglen: When >MrsLee asked the question, I zoomed in to look at the blocks and they certainly look like stones rather than handmade bricks. When I first saw it, and I was looking at it on my phone so the picture was small, it looked like brickwork, but when I zoomed in I realised the blocks were not as regular as they appeared at the lower magnification. The sharp corners would make me think the corner stones were worked in some way to get such a sharp 90 degree angle. Even the smoothness of the walls might suggest some cutting of the blocks. Stone built walls in places like Donegal in in Ireland, just used the stones as they came, and if you wanted a smooth wall you plastered over it.

My brother-in-law's cottage has stone walls. I helped him do some work on the place in the 1970s. The stone walls were about three feet thick, and the stones were rough. It was not a simple job to drill holes through a wall for pipes or cables.

I would not want to hazard a guess at the type of rock used without having a fresh sample in my hands with a fresh surface available to see. It could be a shale or mud-stone. It looks a bit metamorphosed rather than being purely sedimentary, but it looks like it was sedimentary before the metamorphism. The rocks used in my b-i-l's cottage were predominantly schist with some quartzite.

>40 pgmcc: They're worked, but far from being as smooth as ashlar work. That's very common in this country.

I would have imagined that drilling holes for pipes or cables in your brother-in-law's walls would be nearer impossible than merely "not simple"! Now, of course, I shall have to persuade the family that we really, really need to find and spend a night in a nice B&B in the eastern Free State, where most farmhouses are made of Clarens sandstone, and see how they do pipes and cables. On the other hand, that sandstone is a lot softer than granite.

>37 hfglen: It's lovely, but not a lot of windows, I see. Was glass hard to come by at the time?

>42 clamairy: Certainly at Kuruman! It's still pretty remote, but in the second quarter of the 19th century, when it was built, the nearest store of any description was over 500 miles away.

ETA: and transport was by ox-wagon (if an American covered wagon was the equivalent of a luxury SUV, ours were more like basic 4x4s).

>37 hfglen: The important question (for me) - what's the roof made of?

>44 Karlstar: Thatch, with a cement seal on the ridge. (The grass used is probably the indigenous Themeda triandra, which I believe is grown for forage in Central America and Australia.)

>45 hfglen: That's what it looked like! I'm baffled by how that can possibly be waterproof!

>46 Karlstar: Relatively easily. It is (or should be) a layer about 8 inches or thicker. The grass is packed close together, and each stalk swells when wet. Works a treat as long as no little birdies decide that the kind humans have put out a load of nest-building material. Not, actually, that it's a major issue in Kuruman, which is more desert than semi-. More seriously, in this country (and I'd imagine in the U.S. too) you Never, Ever tie the thatch on with wire. Always use twine. The reason is that in a thunderstorm the eddy currents make the wire hot enough to start a fire in the thatch. Even with twine, insurance companies load the premiums heavily for thatch roofs, because they are so vulnerable to fire. (But they are warm in winter, cool in summer and smell heavenly.)

>47 hfglen: Thatching is a rare skill nowadays, and having to have it redone every few years makes it very much a luxury construction material here nowadays. But yes, it's worth it - for those who can afford it!

The Historical Monuments of South Africa suffers from being a semi-official publication from almost 50 years ago. Large-format, illustrations mostly from 19th-century sources, bias showing in the structures / natural history objects selected for National Monument status and in some descriptions. However, it is still interesting for what is there. Since it was published more than a few interesting buildings were declared National Monuments before the whole system was changed after 1994. My bias may also be showing here -- I worked in one of the more recent Monuments for almost a decade. For overseas readers, think Grade 1 Listed Buildings sensu English Heritage.

Special for Karlstar. Here is a sample of thatching not even done by any mammal.



This is a Sociable Weaver nest that DD photographed in Mokala National Park on 15 May 2013. The birds usually enter from below, and the design is not only waterproof but also (to some extent) snake resistant. In areas where trees are scarce they often use telegraph poles, which should make the nests easier to spot.

>50 hfglen: Snake resistant ???

>51 -pilgrim-: I'm guessing it's due to gravity?

>50 hfglen:
Fascinating.

>47 hfglen: >50 hfglen: Thanks for the explanation and example!

>52 humouress: In principle, yes. Also, the thatch is so tight the snakes can't burrow in from above.

Kruger's War is a revised and extended version of Kruger, Kommandos and kak reviewed in #20 above. This one is about 100 pages longer, with the additional content scattered throughout the book. So necessary to read the whole thing if interested, but it doesn't warrant a new review. It seems that Our -pilgrim- has located a copy of this version; it would be interesting to hear her take on it.

>56 hfglen: Unfortunately current Kindle price is rather extortionate... Am awaiting a price drop. Still currently on my Wishlist.

Tomorrow's forecast calls for a maximum of 41°C (106F) here, hotter in the Lowveld. And then there are still those who deny the reality of global warming!

>57 -pilgrim-: Ah. I saw your name on the main page of the book record here in LT. I found a copy in the library. Much cheaper, but it's a brick!

Carrying on the theme of snake-resistant weaver nests, here's a collection of more ordinary nests. Typically one sees them attached to very slender branches or, sometimes, palm fronds. There are several species of weaver around here, that would count as LBJs but for the predominantly yellow feathers.



These nests, probably made by Village Weavers, were seen at Picardi Estate, at the southern end of the town of Paarl, near Cape Town. The nests may be snake-resistant, but the book of words tells me they are subject to being parasitised by Diederik Cuckoos. You just can't win!

>60 hfglen: Such amazing creatures in the world, both those we consider "good" and those which are out to get them.

>61 MrsLee: Indeed. And I consider myself blessed that so many of them live nearby. Even though the monkeys are an unmitigated curse.

The Marseille Caper carries on from where The Vintage Caper left off, with no more than a few days in between. To Sam's amazement, Francis turns up unannounced in Los Angeles wanting Sam to do a job for him. Agreement is soon reached, with Sam's girlfriend Elena Morales joining in. Francis wants to build a few three-storey blocks of flats (US: apartments) on one of the last open seafront sites in the Marseille area. Patrimonio, the chairman of the relevant municipal committee, will do anythang to thwart Francis, so Sam is needed ass front man. The opposing plans are for high-rise expensive hotels, one from Paris (the Marseillais loathe Parisians) and the other from an English crook. How Sam, Elena and their friends Philippe the reporter and his friend Mimi win through with Francis's help in the background is often worthy of the Keystone Kops. The writing is shot through with Peter Mayle's characteristic one-liners (yay) and descriptions of outstanding food and wine. I liked the one in the midst of the celebratory meal on the last page, that included cheese "from an obliging goat".

The Durrells of Corfu is an attempt, generally successful, to piece together what really happened in the stories told by Gerald Durrell starting with My Family and other Animals, and by his elder brother Lawrence Durrell in Prospero's Cell. It turns out that both brothers were good at borrowing and embroidering stories, but the essence of this stage in their lives is relatively accurately portrayed in their books. I liked this line, where Michael Haag quotes Mother: "The awful thing about Gerald's book is that I'm beginning to believe it is all true". Michael Haag's book is very readable, illustrated with many pictures from Gerald's family archive (kept at the zoo on Jersey) and tones the stories down where necessary. The result is no less than fascinating, and one enjoys seeing the houses, Theodore and Spiros. The only characters I missed were Widdle and Puke.

Would I read another by Michael Haag: Gladly: there are several in his LT catalogue that look positively mouth-watering
Would I recommend this book: Equally gladly.
To whom: Better Half, the Dragoneers who have been discussing Gerald's animal-collecting activities in the pub recently, and anyone else who enjoys a good story.

I'll go further than Pete's three questions: Michael Haag has inspired me to look out for Prospero's Cell and The Alexandria Quartet, at least.

>62 hfglen: What's the monkey curse?

>65 Karlstar: Theft. By monkeys. In some places, baboons are just as bad (The Cape Point troop are said, not entirely in jest, to be only one Jamie Oliver video away from making their own bread -- from stolen ingredients, of course.)

>64 hfglen: That is an interesting addition to the list of questions:

What has this book/author inspired me to do?

>64 hfglen: That does sound interesting.

This week's picture is fresh from this afternoon late-ish. The light through the trees was just right, so here is a view from the lawn across the valley. The "human" interest is provided by "Richard's mate Jess". I have no idea what she found so interesting.



Yes, the tree on the left is a Fever Tree. Most of the plants in this part of the garden are indigenous somewhere in South Africa.

>69 hfglen: Beautiful!

>69 hfglen: Lovely.

>64 hfglen: That could be a book bullet ... if I ever work up the energy to go and look for it. We did My Family and Other Animals in school for English Lit.

>69 hfglen: Nice.

>72 humouress: It's a short, quick read -- only 200 pages, with lots of (poorly reproduced) pictures.

The Cat who Moved a Mountain. An LT review commends this one for "tight plotting", and notes that it sets up some details for the next in the series, The Cat Who wasn't there. True enough, but ...
Qwill and the cats go for a mountain vacation four states away; as the reviewer said, was it really necessary to compress the action into one week? They solve a miscarriage of justice that happened a year before the week in question. But still. The book ends as if guillotined. Even if Qwill was concerned for Polly's safety, surely he'd have had to return to the mountains to give evidence in one at least of the several court cases that would have had to follow on the story developed here? And how would Barter the lawyer have recognised the person he was acting for (whom he's never heard of until Qwill got involved) in the mountains? More loose ends than normal, and not cleared up in the later book.

edited for spelling

"Hi, Ena!"



Kruger National Park, November 2013.

>75 hfglen: Wow. Hyenas are not very attractive animals, are they? At least, not from that angle! Cool picture though!

>76 tardis: Their table manners are revolting, too. Think of them as nature's garbage disposal (complete with the expected aroma) and you won't be far off.

>77 hfglen: Delightful.

Voting is now closed in our municipal elections. I feel like singing the words Mrs Menuhin is said to have fitted to the Mozart violin concerto:
"Thank God that's over,
Thank God that's over,
It's over, it's over it's over at last!"

Counting and recriminations to follow, sadly.

Possibly a more literary description of the elections comes from W.S. Gilbert, writing in The Gondoliers:

"Now there's a sight you could not beat:
Two party leaders in each street
Maintaining with no little heat
Their various opinions!"

There were some 350 parties and 1500 independents participating.

>80 hfglen:
There were some 350 parties and 1500 independents participating.

Wow! Those numbers are mind boggling.

>80 hfglen: In your voting district alone, or nationwide?

>82 -pilgrim-: Nationwide. In our ward there were about a dozen candidates, and the proportional ballot for Durban had at least twice that number of parties.

>83 hfglen: So your system resembles the Scottish one? First-past-the-post for individual wards, plus seats allocated by party proportions at region level?

>84 -pilgrim-: Only at municipal level. At provincial and national levels it's pure party list, with no independents and no public input on who's where on the list.

>85 hfglen: And the same extensive range of parties? Plus a copious helping of independents?

>86 -pilgrim-: Independents only at municipal level. Expect another rash of new parties just in (or out of) time for the national and provincial elections in 2024.

Just in case you were wondering, Hugh, I just noticed that I had accidentally "ignored" this thread. Humble apologies. Best wishes to my mate Jess.

No worries, Richard. Jess says woof.

>87 hfglen: Hopefully you will have recovered by then.

The ultimate book of Heroic Failures, many of which would seem also to be "qualifying rounds" for the Darwin Prize. Most entries are considerably less than a page long, and many are laugh-out-loud funny. So, for an example suitable for this pub, under the heading "least successful disguise" we learn of a lady who stepped out on to her balcony while undressed. The wind came up and blew the door closed; it locked itself. So she put a bucket over her head so as not to be recognized and went for help. And got lost.

In all, a good antidote to local-election trauma.

Would I read another by this author: Possibly, circumspectly, as he seems to have written virtually the same book several times under similar titles.
Would I recommend this book: yes.
To whom: First of all to MrsLee, then anyone else who needs humorous bathroom reading.

Peter Pan's First XI. In my teens and late pre-teens I "hate hate hate stabbity-stab hated" Peter Pan, mainly due to maternal efforts to ram it down my neck as some kind of an ideal. So why pick this one up in the library, as even after more than half a century mention of Peter Pan causes me to consider losing my breakfast. The cover picture is clearly of adult cricket, and that statue in Kensington Gardens is mercifully absent from the illustrations inside.

The story is actually the history of a group of amateur cricketers led by J. M. Barrie, who started playing together (badly) about the time of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and broke up shortly before the First World War. So it is really an aspect of social history of the British upper-middle classes in a golden age.

And my interest in cricket? Purely as a pleasantly mindless sound from the radio blanking out other distractions on a summer day (works best with 5-day matches). IMHO the finest piece of commentary ever was in the late '50s or '60s by the much-missed Charles Fortune on SABC, about one or another test:
"Oh, the English Service has just joined us for 15 minutes \This was in the way-back-when days of ball-by-ball commentary all day on shortwave\. There's a little black dog causing a distraction in the outfield..." etc etc etc for the full 15 minutes, during which he completely omitted any mention whatsoever of who was playing or the score.

Would I read another by this author? LT lists one that I would dearly like to read.
Would I recommend this book? Maybe, but I can't think of what would make me think it relevant.
To whom? Dunno.

>92 hfglen: So the English Service listeners missed their entire cricket fix?

Are you following the T20 going on at the moment (since you mention cricket)? My husband has put it on, though he's fallen asleep, so I am watching perforce. It is, as you say, pleasant enough background noise.

>93 humouress: They got a very thorough description of the dog, the crowd, "it's a wonderful day here today at the Wanderers" and so on. Possibly even a description of some of the players. But otherwise yes, the game sort of went on by itself.

We don't have a subscription to a sports channel in the Glen household, so no, I rely on the news for highlights.

>91 hfglen: Heh, that incident from the book you cited reminds me all to much of my days working in the hotel. I can't say we had that exact scenario, but close enough. Fire regulations mean that the door to your hotel room will close automatically behind you people.

>91 hfglen: >95 MrsLee: There was the time my husband investigated what was outside the tall bathroom window at the hotel we stayed in, in Paris, next to the Gare St. Lazare. The way he and the kids tell it is that he scared a lady at the bus stop opposite. (Thankfully, he didn't step outside.)

The Dastard. Pretty exactly what one would expect from a Xanth story: brain candy with the usual large number of groan-inducing puns. (Though I do like the idea of a Date palm with lots of Thyme growing in it, acting as a calendar.) A surprisingly moral and thoughtful ending in this one.

>95 MrsLee:, >96 humouress: :-D

Guy Fawkes? Bonfire Night? We in Durban had Diwali (just as noisy) last night.

Heroes. The next book of Stephen Fry's re-telling of all of Greek mythology. Next book? I see on LT that there are now four, though I haven't seen either Troy or The Odyssey yet "in the flesh", so to speak. Just as in the first volume (Mythos), he does his best to make coherent sense of the often (usually?) contradictory and very fragmentary sources that have come down to us. As may be expected, it is a polished, entertaining and often humorous best.

Would I read another by this author? Just as soon as I can find one I haven't already read.
Would I recommend this book? Yes.
To whom? Dragoneers and others (possibly even teenage boys in high school -- some of the stories are a bit rough) who like a good if elderly story.
What am I inspired by this one to do? Keep an eye peeled for the other two volumes in this series. Look out for Natalie Haynes's tellings of the same / similar stories (also on BBC Radio 4).

>75 hfglen: Excellent photo.

>76 tardis: & >77 hfglen: Yes, not exactly pretty to look at, but fill a very important niche!

>100 hfglen: That's on my wishlist. I loved Mythos. (I did listen to him read the audible version.)

Not everything interesting in the Kruger Park is necessarily enormous. One morning we were almost ready to go out and look for game when we spotted this Praying Mantis on a windscreen wiper of our bakkie.



If you thought last week's hyaena's table manners lacked finesse, this one's are truly revolting. And she eats the male alive directly after coupling. (Kruger National Park, November 2013)

The Summer of '45. Books about WW2 are somewhere between "legion" and "a dime a dozen", but have you ever seen one about what happened next? Neither had I until I saw this one. The story starts on 8 May 1945, covers Britain, Europe, America and Japan, and peters out in September 1945. It sort-of fills a gap, but still leaves questions about 'and elsewhere?' and "what happened next". For just one example, why was fuel (but nothing else) rationed in South Africa c. 1946? -- I still have a few ration coupons from the period made out for my father's car. Some context would be interesting.

In this book Telfer lets contemporary witnesses do much of the talking, which is a good idea and maintains interest. His writing between the quotes is workmanlike rather than inspired (or, for that matter, awful) and if nothing else, dose not detract from the story.

Would I read another by Kevin Telfer? probably not, unless he writes something different; I have read both of his that I find interesting a priori, and LT only lists three.
Would I recommend this book? possibly, if relevant
To whom? Dunno.

Chaos: the amazing science of the unpredictable. Jawellnofine. The problem with any account of a revolution written early in the proceedings is that nobody knows how it will end, and this one was written in 1987, when chaos studies were still very young. And so we have lots of examples (and more than a little hand-waving) but no wrapped-up stories. I find this ultimately disappointing, however inevitable.

Would I read another by this author? I would not actively avoid his work.
Would I recommend this one? I find it hard to imagine a situation where it would be relevant.
To whom? Dunno.

Another report from this "mad and sunny land".
https://www.iol.co.za/lifestyle/health/another-reason-to-leave-the-toilet-seat-d...
This is surely a unique occurrence.

>105 hfglen: **shudder**

>105 hfglen: I'm a woman and that was painful to read.

>105 hfglen: My legs are now so firmly crossed that my right foot is back to the right of the left!

And I am over 6,000 miles away.

>105 hfglen: I have a memory from the time I was about four years old of a snake being tugged out of the bath plug hole after it had, I was told, swallowed a frog and got stuck. It took a few decades before I fully trusted bathrooms again.

Although I do wonder if there's anything under the 'floating' cupboards in our current bathroom, especially after seeing a snake on a recent walk which, I discovered on looking it up once I came home, was a baby spitting cobra. (But, since I'm not athletic enough to bend far enough to check under the cupboards, I'll assume I'm being paranoid and live with it.)

>106 haydninvienna: -- >109 humouress: So what you need this week is a gentle scene from about this time some years ago.



Ngotso River near Balule, Kruger National Park, November 2013.

>110 hfglen: Er, what can be found swimming there?

>111 -pilgrim-: The object in the middle of the river might be a hippo. There are certainly crocodiles nearby. Also probably bilharzia (schistostomiasis) flukes and, in summer, a chance of malaria mosquitoes.

It seems grimly apposite that on Remembrance Sunday I should be halfway through From Addis to the Aosta Valley, a South African soldier's memoir of World War 2. More extensive review to follow, perhaps, but in the meanwhile suffice to say this is not for the faint-hearted, nor for those of, er, Victorian sensibilities. He tells it like it was.

>112 hfglen: Very restful. Erm ... thank you?

>114 humouress: Stay in your car and be back in the rest camp before the gates close. Then you have no worries.

>111 -pilgrim-: >114 humouress: PS. You both remind me of a tale I was once told about an estuary not all that far from here. During WW2 the RAF maintained a Catalina base on Lake St. Lucia, from which they flew patrols over the adjacent Indian Ocean. It is reported that an off-duty pilot wanted to swim in one or another nearby estuary, and thought it prudent to ask about local hazards; he was assured it was safe.
"Wot, no sharks?"
"No, too many crocodiles."

From Addis to the Aosta Valley (continued from #113). He starts, by way of introduction, with a vignette of his mid-teens and joining up; then we get his training at Potchefstroom. This occupies about a quarter of the book, before we are moved to Kenya, Somalia and the Ethiopian campaign, all seen in what one might call a "worm's-eye" view. When the Italians had been removed from Ethiopia, the South African troops proceeded to Egypt. Although he went to Palestine on leave a few times, he evidently didn't know that the railway he used between Haifa and Beirut had been built not long before by South Africans -- but then, he was a gunner, not an engineer. He stayed in Egypt until just after El Alamein, but missed the rest of the push westwards across North Africa, as he had long leave back home. After his leave there was a further period of training in Cape Town, as his unit was converted from artillery to infantry. When he went back to the front, it was in Italy, north of Rome. He continued to guard the Italian border for a couple of months after VE Day before being drafted home and discharged.

The book is based on his diaries kept at the time, so apart from a few General Orders and scraps in the illustrations, there are almost no hints of a larger picture, and from time to time the younger reader will need to follow a history of the period to find out what was going on in places. However the gore, dust, sand, heat and general discomfort are there aplenty. As are the women he slept with. The South African publisher is a tiny outfit, and evidently does not employ a proofreader; this, unfortunately shows from time to time.

Would I read another by this author: As this appears to be his only published work, and he was 91 when it came out, the question is meaningless.
Would I recommend this book: probably not.
To whom: one would need to be a dedicated hunter in the byways of South African / WW2 history to need this one (clearly the library has a very limited range of books I haven't read already).

Life on Air Functionally this is David Attenborough's autobiography, in which we learn of the numerous TV series he has made. One cannot truthfully say "since the start of TV", since the first BBC broadcast was in 1936 and he only joined the service in the very early '50s. But he has experienced the development of cinematography at first hand over some 70 years, and understood clearly what he was seeing all that time. He seems to have left few if any stones unturned, and the result makes fascinating reading. This is a BBC production, and therefore the highest professional standards of production are maintained. Highly recommended: the films, even more!

Would I read another by this author: Lead me to them! -- there seem to be enough.
Would I recommend this book: yes!
To whom: anyone who has enjoyed his TV presentations, or enjoys nature, or a good story well told, or biographies. I suspect that will include most Dragoneers.

Stray thought: One seldom if ever finds a fantasy world with the richness and downright bizarre inhabitants that this author's books and films describe from the real world. This is a strong inhibitory factor against trying to write fantasy: knowing that however strange the creature one dreams up, something weirder is or once was genuinely out there.

>116 hfglen: I've heard a similar joke told about the Top End of Australia, where there are salt water crocs.

Tourist about to swim 'Are there sharks?'
Local, laconically 'Nah'
And then, after tourist has jumped in 'Sharks is afraid of crocs'.

I took a book bullet for The Durrells of Corfu but it's been decades since I read My Family and Other Animals in school and I suspect that this book would do better as a companion book to that (or Larry Durrel's Prospero's Cell (which I haven't read at all)). I usually like 'behind the scenes' stories but I think this one may be more of a 'fill in the gaps' - for which you need to be aware of the gaps.

>118 hfglen: I own a copy of this that I haven't got around to reading. I will need to move it up the TBR pile.

The Hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. Not quite what I was expecting when I signed it out of the library. More a history of the development of the script than an account of where it came from and what the signs mean. Includes a chapter on the decoding of hieroglyphs since the dawn of the 19th century. Lots of beautiful pictures.

Would I read another by this author? If one crosses my path I would not avoid it.
Would I recommend it? Probably not.
To whom? I have no idea.

Absolution by Murder. First in the Sister Fidelma series by Peter Tremayne, and I am grateful to the Internet Archive for making it available. The timing of this read was (unintentionally) apposite: the action is set at the Synod of Whitby (look it up). Now the abbess of the abbey where (and when) it took place was one Hilda of Whitby. Whose saint's day our church commemorated two days ago. The story is a most satisfactory whodunit, and if I say no more, at least this note will be spoiler-free.

Would I read another by this author? I have already borrowed the next unread Sister Fidelma from I.A.
Would I recommend this book? Enthusiastically!
To whom? Lovers of historical novels, ditto whodunits, ditto mediaeval history. Possibly even feminists.

>122 hfglen: I started that 23 months ago, but never finished due to loss of access to a readable copy.

*bangs head against wall in frustration*

This week, another calm and quiet scene. Though I must admit that I've seen this river in flood, which was frightening.



Crocodile River in Lowveld National Botanical Garden, Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, May 2014 (start of dry season). For -pilgrim-'s and humouress's benefit, this stretch only has bilharzia flukes and occasional mosquitoes (the hippos and crocs are lower down, where the river forms the boundary of the Kruger Park).

>124 hfglen: interesting to think of bilharzia as safer than crocodiles. At least you can see the crocs.

>124 hfglen: Gosh. Thanks. You make these places sound so enticing. Maybe you should just put the pictures up?

>125 haydninvienna: Bilharzia is, at least in principle, curable. And crocs are pas masters at hiding ...

Lear's Italy. Most of the book is culled from Lear's letters and travelogues, and none the worse for that. He travelled at an interesting time: in most of the book there are frequent customs stops between the various micro-states that were assembled into the country we know today. Also, in the early part getting from A to B meant either walking or some form of horse-drawn transport of greater or lesser discomfort. Later on he could and often did take a train. One tends to forget that Lear was a gifted artist, to whom the nonsense verse for which he is remembered today was a very secondary avocation.

>128 hfglen: That sounds like a lovely book. The biography I read on him quoted and printed many of his letters, very interesting stuff!

This week's picture is not specifically South African, but rather a Green Dragon, after a fashion.



The mug is a souvenir from a long ago visit to Orkney (Scotland), and the image engraved on it is the Maes Howe Dragon. The green is the front garden at this time of year.

>130 hfglen:
That is a lovely tankard; very suitable for drinking ale in The Green Dragon.

>130 hfglen: This is lovely. (Both the glass and the photo composition.)

>130 hfglen: Yes, yes, what the others said. Lovely.

>130 hfglen: Nice!

>131 pgmcc:->134 NorthernStar: Thank you all. Thinks: wouldn't it be fun if we could all sit around on the lawn outside (it's sunny early summer right now) drinking craft beer from assorted souvenir tankards and engaging in Green Dragonish chatter ... possibly starting a fire for a braai in an hour or two. (The linked story suggests, correctly, that decent people don't braai on gas. I commend Jan Braai's version: "Gas" is the Afrikaans word for a guest at a braai, not a fuel!)

The Bolter. Ahem. Now we know where Happy Valley in Kenya got its reputation. An interesting book, and by all accounts a beautiful place, but I think I'm glad I move in a totally different circle (despite having several friends who were born or once lived "up north"). Two thoughts put together might de-mystify one LT reviewer. First: the "remittance man" (black sheep of an upper-class family, sent overseas and provided an income provided he -- I've never heard of a she in this role -- stayed there) was a well-known character in British territories in Africa. Second: it used to be quite well known around here that after WW2 when, it seems, everybody in Britain with get-up-and-go got up and went, "Kenya was for officers, Rhodesia for other ranks". And this book makes it clear early on what the officer class (aristocratic) attitude to sex and marriage was in practice. I can't help feeling glad that I live in a different time and community. Nonetheless, an interesting and atmospheric read; I'm not sorry I did.

Would I read another by this author: maybe
Would I recommend this book: maybe
To whom: It is hard to imagine who would find it relevant
Inspired to do: If funds were infinite, one might consider suggesting to the family that it might be good to take a long holiday and drive up to Kenya to see what the place really looks like. Though one would probably have to start by trading in the Steed (snf! She's a good bakkie!) for her 4x4 equivalent.

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. As the one and only LT review says, this is an anodyne biography, and fortunately a quick read. I was curious to see that one of the male Bouviers died of myasthenia gravis, which my daughter has had for the last five years or so. I have to say that even though I finished reading this book about a week ago, I have already forgotten nearly all of it.

Would I read another by this author: probably not
Would I recommend this book: probably not
To whom: n/a

Paws in the Proceedings. Cats, humour, sympathy: what's not to like? Late-middle-aged (ahem!) and his almost-blind wife live in Yorkshire with two geriatric cats. At the start of the book, they are joined by a pitch-black, half-grown feral kitten who greets any form of contact with a snarl and all claws extended, though he accepts the kennel the human builds for him, and the food supplied. We get a light-hearted summary of roughly the following year -- the cats don't feature in all the stories. In the last chapter Nokia, the black cat, discovers that actually the humans are very fond of him, and go out of their way to make him comfortable and welcome when he comes indoors. And so he learns to purr and be affectionate.

Would I read another by this author: yes
Would I recommend this book: yes
To whom: Better Half, as soon as I've posted this. Anyone else who likes cat videos / cat stories / English humour.

>138 hfglen: This sounds like a book for me!

>138 hfglen:

You reminded me of an interview in which a famous actor, which one I cannot remember, was discussing his first experience of being directed by Hitchcock. He was doing a screen trial. He played his part and at the end of the scene Hitchcock told him, "Very good, but can we have a few more dog's fee?".

"Dog's feet?" he asked.

"Yes," said Hitchcock. "Pauses."

>140 pgmcc: *applaws*

>138 hfglen: sounds like my kind of book! Alas, my library does not have it.

Valley of the Shadow. Another Sister Fidelma whodunit, which is good news. Out of the blue, the most obdurately pagan community in Muman (kingdom of Munster to us) suddenly request negotiations aimed at establishing a church and school in their area. So Fidelma is sent off as negotiator, and finds as she approaches the place that all is not as it seems. Fortunately for all it was Fidelma the King sent, and she uncovers a plot to cause civil war in Muman and hence to make a new, amoral, ambitious man High King in Tara. An agitator sent from Ulster turns out to be a "nogoodnik" in a way his bosses hadn't anticipated.

Question for Peter: The description of Gleann Geis makes it sound like an ancient caldera of an extinct volcano. Do such things exist in Ireland?

Would I read another by this author: yes, I have, and there are some Sister Fidelmas still to go.
Would I recommend this book: yes, with pleasure
To whom: anyone who likes a good historical novel or a good whodunit.

A day late! But here it is.



I cannot believe that anyone with Victorian sensibilities would construct this, but they did. It was ordered (via a catalogue) from a Glasgow foundry and erected on Curries Fountain, which was Durban's main fresh-water source in Queen Victoria's Glorious Days. It's still more-or-less where it was erected at the time, restored and re-painted by the Durban Botanic Garden staff. I'm told that in all probability the original waterworks plumbing would be found nearby, by sensitive archaeological excavation. At high spring tide the base is only a few millimetres above sea level, which makes the path next to it (behind the sedges) "kinda damp".

>144 hfglen: Hugh, that's brilliant! Great photo too. I wonder now if there's any uber-kitsch like that around Brisbane. Wouldn't be surprised ...

>145 haydninvienna: Richard, the point may be clearer when the water is turned on. It jets out of the pots, which disappear from many angles (but the water doesn't ...)

>146 hfglen: You mean this is a duplication (in the sense of TWO boys) of the Manneken Pis in Brussels?

>148 20thEagle:
I think you are getting what Hugh means.
:-)

>148 20thEagle: Precisely. And this is strait-laced Victoriana :-)

This week's picture is specially for MrsLee. It's a device she may wish to use.



In particular, it's a piece of 18th-century country craft: a hyena trap, preserved and seen in Karoo National Park, Beaufort West (the town where the heart surgeon Chris Barnard grew up). Photo May 2013.

how does it work? is there a pit inside? bait maybe?

>151 hfglen: What did they do with hyenas, dare I ask? (Just in case that gives MrsL ideas about importing it.)

>152 Darth-Heather: There was indeed bait inside. The middle one of the three front stones, held up by a bent iron bar, just visible in the picture, in use would have been attached to the bait in such a way that when the hyena was inside and took the bait it fell down the slot between the other two and trapped the hyena.

>153 haydninvienna: Then the farmer could shoot the animal at his leisure. I'm sure MrsL cold build her own from the picture, no need to import anything.

*taking notes*

>151 hfglen: Do they check it periodically for trapped hyenas?

>156 humouress: Not the one in the picture, which is disabled and used only as a historical / archaeological exhibit. One used for its original purpose would be checked daily.

A Gardener's Year The author of this one (who also wrote the highly esteemed Plains of Camdeboo) was a highly regarded gardener and amateur botanist, whose plant press is still occasionally exercised by the Glen family. This book is extracts from some 50 years' worth of diaries, arranged into months. The interest for me is that I knew and had the honour of working with several of the characters mentioned. The book may, on the face of it, appeal to someone like tardis, but I suspect she would find it infinitely frustrating, as the climate and plants are so different to Canada's. Eve Palmer's garden was mostly South African indigenous and roses. The latter can take the Highveld climate -- my father maintained a remarkable display of them in Johannesburg -- but are miserably short-lived here in Durban. This book can best be described as a gentle read.

Would I read another by this author? Four of her books are on my shelves.
Would I recommend this book? Unlikely. I would recommend that GD readers choose The Plains of Camdeboo rather.
To whom? Dunno.

Bridges that changed the world. Gorgeously illustrated account of some 50-odd bridges from the most primitive to the most advanced. Mostly very lucid and well translated from a German original, but two or three diagrams are baffling to my limited understanding. Stray thought: didn't MrsLee mention a bridge by Santiago Calatrava somewhere near where she lives, where the pylon was set at such an angle that it acts as the gnomon of a sundial?

Would I read another by this author: My German is not good enough for most of his works, but there are one or two English translations listed on LT that are tempting.
Would I recommend this book: possibly
To whom: Those who appreciate fine photographs and excellent civil engineering
Inspiration: to take better pictures!

>159 hfglen: Ouch!!! Right between the eyes.

>159 hfglen: Yes, It's called the Sundial Bridge, in Redding, CA., which is about 30 miles from my house. There is a nice little botanical garden and Natural History (more like rotating living exhibits) museum on either side of the bridge. The bridge itself crosses the Sacramento river.

>159 hfglen:
I believe MrsLee referred to the bridge in this article. She was responding to my posting the picture below of The Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin.

, The style put her in mind of bridges known to her. On checking the World Wide Web we discovered the same architect had designed the bridges concerned; Santiago Calatrava.

That book does look interesting.

>159 hfglen: Intriguing. There are some bridge engineers in my family that might appeal to.

>161 MrsLee: >162 pgmcc: That is so cool. I love things which are multifunctional. (Although, do you get enough sun in Dublin for it to work?)

>163 humouress:
Are you climatologically stereotyping?

:-)

That trap makes me very sad, even if it is disabled.

>163 humouress: Speaking of telling the time, you reminded me of the different ways people across the world respond to the question, "What time is it?"

If you ask that question in the US you are likely to hear the response, "Ten after two!"

If you ask it in England you will be told, "Ten past two!"

In Ireland if you ask the time you will be asked, "What do you want to know for?"

>164 pgmcc: Yep :0)

>166 pgmcc: Sounds like my sons. Could be they're Irish?

>167 humouress:
You probably know them better than I do, to be sure, aye, begorrah!

>166 pgmcc: If you ask the time here and the answer comes back "half seven" in a UK English accent, they mean an hour after "half sewe" (same words) in Afrikaans. I find this confusing.

>164 pgmcc: But Pete, we all know that in Dublin it rains for 15 minutes every quarter hour!

How's this for a Christmas farm?



In the Little Karoo, on a minor road from Calitzdorp to the Cango Caves (from where a more major road goes over the breathtaking Swartberg Pass to the Great Karoo), June 2013.

The Glitter and the Gold. Wow! What a lot of name-dropping! And not, really, very much else. There are many better sources on life in late-Victorian times to the start of World War 2.

Would I read another by this author: Mercifully, there isn't one.
Would I recommend this book: most unlikely
To whom: my mother, when in social-climbing mode, was about the only person I have known who would be interested.

>170 hfglen:
I love the depth of the photograph. We have the road in the foreground, the valley with the buildings, green hills and river in the mid-distance, and the mountains as a backdrop. It would make a great and infuriating jigsaw.

>171 hfglen:
I had a look at the write-up on the book's page and it appears the very things you disliked about the book are the very things being used to commend it. :-)

I am with you on this one.

>170 hfglen: Beautiful! I love the layers of hills and mountains (which I think is what Peter has said so much more eloquently!)

>174 Sakerfalcon:
:-)

I thank you for the "much more eloquently" remark, but your "which I think is what Peter has said" makes me wonder have I used eloquence at the expense of meaning. :-)

Your post is much more erudite.

>172 pgmcc: >174 Sakerfalcon: Sadly, I can't offer you a taste of the wines made on that and neighbouring farms. They grow Portuguese varieties, which they turn into sweet, fortified wines that did very well in Port classes in international wine competitions until the Portuguese started to enforce Wine of Origin legislation. The local brews haven't changed since then.

>170 hfglen: Gorgeous photo, Hugh.

>176 hfglen: That's too bad! (I don't do sweet wines.)

>176 hfglen: >177 clamairy: I do though!

And yes, Hugh, I loved the photo.

>177 clamairy: In that case may I suggest several other estates in the area that use the same Portuguese cultivars (plus Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and others) to make dry, unfortified wines? One even makes a Pinot Noir MCC (same technique as Champagne, but we're not allowed to call it that) fizz.

>170 hfglen: Stunning landscape.

Merry Christmas to you and René and Melissa and the fur people, Hugh.

>181 haydninvienna: Likewise to you and Mrs H! Purrs from the Feline Overlords.

Merry Christmas, Hugh. I hope you and yours have a lovely time.

And a Merry Christmas from me too.

A lousy picture but an interesting subject this week



This, believe it or not, is a fish, sitting quite happily on a tree root in the sun out of the water. Every mangrove swamp has mud-skippers, and if you're very quiet they will come out of the water near enough to be photographed. This one was at Beachwood Mangroves in the Umgeni estuary, barely 5 km from downtown Durban. (Aren't we lucky to have wild nature right in town like this?)

>185 hfglen: Wow!!! They come out to sun themselves?

>186 clamairy: Because, you know, it's awfully wet in their normal environment ;0)

>187 humouress: Well, yes... But they are FISH!

>185 hfglen: That is fascinating.

>188 clamairy:

Prejudice is a terrible thing. :-)

>186 clamairy: The ones at Umlalazi (about 80 miles up the coast) generally stay in the shade, but a lot of Beachwood is exposed like this. Unfortunately I don't speak mudskipper and so can't ask what they prefer ;-)

>187 humouress: Generally you only have to stay absolutely still and dead quiet for a minute or two before one appears out of the water. The trick is persuading one to get close enough and hold still long enough for a decent picture.

>188 clamairy: I can't help feeling sorry for the ones I saw once in a specialist aquarist's place on the East Rand, 400 miles from the nearest sea ...

The West Country The blurb tells me that W.A. Poucher is a photographer, and sure enough the portrait on the dust jacket shows a "late middle-aged" gent holding what looks like a Leica M3; this may be a hint of what to expect. Sure enough, there are some hundred-odd full- or double-page pictures, with hardly any text. And the pictures? They are very much in the salon school that one can see in any issue of the British Journal Photographic Almanac from 1930 and probably earlier, to the early 1960s with no change or development whatsoever. Yawn.

>191 hfglen: I thought they prefer freshwater?

>191 hfglen: with regard to the mudskippers, just how quickly are they able to move. My first reaction was the same as clamairy had in that they're FISH. Or is it more accurate to call them amphibians?

By the way, some of the titles you referenced in this thread have made it on to my wish list, as I think the Happy Valley crowd must be an interesting cultural group.

>193 -pilgrim-: Estuarine, so not-exactly-fresh but not-quite-marine either.

>194 jillmwo: You'd be surprised! They can disappear in milliseconds. And they are indeed fish with fins and gills, not amphibians with legs and lungs.

Hugh, have a lovely evening to welcome in what I hope will be a marvellous 2022 for you and yours.

Happy new year, Hugh, René, Melissa, the Feline Overlords, and my mate Jess.