Hugh's reading, pictures and stray thoughts for 2015 part 2

Ah! We seem to be working again.

>1 hfglen: Just stamping my footprint so the thread shows up on My Posts. I would not want to miss anything.

Tim has said there are some sort of vampires sporadically getting in the site which slow things down lately. So far he is vanquishing them as soon as he is aware. I'm thinking we need a movie: Tim, the LibraryThing Hunter. It could be the third in my campy-but-not-meant-to-be-so movie trilogy. The first two are Van Helsing and Ghost Rider.

>2 pgmcc: "If your name is, Timothy or \Pete\, So long as you come from Ireland there's a welcome on the mat!"

>3 MrsLee: That describes what I saw. Many thanks.

>4 hfglen: Thank you for the welcome. You know your old Irish songs.

Giants Castle, a personal history (touchstone not working) by Bill Barnes. Considering this is the only copy on LT, it may be no surprise that the touchstone doesn't work. Considering that the book is privately published (for a good reason), this may be no loss. And yet. It covers the story of how one of the most breathtaking parts of South Africa became a nature reserve (it's now part of a World Heritage site), and the problems they had -- and the mistakes and successes -- making it as great as it is. And it's told by one of the key players in that story, who was evidently a great raconteur. But it's still bitty, and loses its way too often. I can't help feeling that if it had been written by someone a bit further from the action, the author might have seen that the story that still needs to be told covers a considerably wider area (the northern and southern Berg, not just the central area. And maybe Golden Gate, "round the corner" in the Free State, is part of the same story, though looked after by a different authority. Still, as a good historian pointed out to me recently in a different context, this is probably the last chance to record stories like this. So in all, important materials towards a good book, rather than the book itself.

The Mammoth book of Great Inventions. Conveniently sized for reading in bed, despite the title. No glaring omissions, but to my mind a tad long-winded in some places, too brief in others. (But I note the old Latin tag De gustibus non est disputandum.) More distressing is the evidence of intermittently slipshod proofreading -- too many typos! And, precisely because it tries to be a history from whenever to the present moment, the text often displays its age (it was written 15 years ago, which for some entries is a long time).

Seeing this weeken is Easter, I've dug out a picture of the High Cross at Kilfenora, where @pgmcc's path and mine almost crossed at Easter 33 years ago.

I remember the weather was great in Clare and Galway that Easter.

Indeed. I recall that week in Ireland with more fondness than can be attributed merely to the fact that my grandfather was an O'Connor, and his father came from Ennis.

The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle by Russell Miller. An interesting counterpoint to A Study in Scarlet, our March group read. Miller had access to much more primary documentation than any previous biographer of Conan Doyle, and uses it thoroughly, wisely and well. He points out that the Holmes stories were plagued almost from the beginning by continuity errors, which became worse as Conan Doyle aged. Fortunately for the GD, Study in Scarlet was the first book-length story published, and so the flaws remain to some degree hidden. But the tail end of the book is a sad account of Conan Doyle's obsession with spiritualism, and his slide into ever-deeper credulity. And so the last few Holmes stories (written in the 1920s) are definitely poorer than the previous standard. This was particularly sad, as that decade saw the rise of Lord Peter Wimsey, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple and several others, all of whom were, in fact, better detectives than Holmes. The biography is definitely worth reading.

>11 hfglen: I have never loved the Holmes stories as much as I love other detective stories written in the 20s, 30s and 40s, however, I wonder if those would have been written without the Holmes stories? There is something about Sherlock Holmes which transcends the writing. The other detective stories I love have not caught the imagination of the world at large, only those who are real mystery buffs, but Sherlock Holmes has.

>12 MrsLee: Hmmmmz. Maybe one could say that Holmes was a solid foundation for others to build on, and for some reason that maybe someone else can explain, the other, better written detectives have become "niche characters" rather than "world players".

Currently reading: The Ghosts of Evolution by Connie Barlow. And savouring it. Start with the question "In nature, without human interference, what disperses the seeds of avocado pears?" Nowadays, they don't; they pile up under the parent tree and rot, which is no use to the species. But 13000 years ago, before there were people in the New World, there were several, perhaps many, large herbivores with mouths and guts big enough to swallow the fruit and pass the seed -- somewhere away from the parent tree. And so with a bit of imagination and sympathy, we can imagine a ghostly mastodon standing behind each avocado pear tree. Now read on; it's a free download.

The Ghosts of Evolution looks like something I would enjoy.

>15 SylviaC: Sylvia, I think you would. I've now finished it, and. Somewhere in the last couple of months, @MrsLee mentioned that somebody's planning an elephant refuge not far from where she lives in CA. Turns out this is a more sensible idea than it might at first appear, but would be even better if they put it somewhere between South Dakota and New Mexico, and possibly even more sensible if they put camels, burros and rhinos in with the ellies. What say you, Lee?

>16 hfglen: It's all fine with me, but why the camels and burros? Are those endangered? Or do they simply make good companion animals? Only, I still want the refuge here because somewhere between South Dakota and New Mexico is a very long ways away from me.

>17 MrsLee: a long way away and tornado ally. I'd rather not see an elephant flying in a tornado. Any news on the refuge, by the way?

>18 catzteach: I think it is all still at the bureaucratic bogged down level. The projected opening was five years down the road, and so far as I know, they are only talking about elephants which are no longer able to be in zoos for one reason or another. Or maybe that is a part of what the reserve will be, as they are also talking about family groups. Sorry, for a local girl I am woefully uninformed.

>17 MrsLee: You need ellies, camels and burros to eat various levels of vegetation, control and balance the plants, and spread the seeds. All of them together serve to maintain the right balance of grass, shrubland and trees.

We should all have a botanist available to help us plan the landscaping of our gardens.

>20 hfglen: Ah, I wish I knew who to pass your comments on to around here. It's some sort of foundation or other.

>21 pgmcc: And now I'm envisioning ellies, camels and burros in my backyard, which is extensive, but perhaps not quite the place for them. :D

Fans of the writings of Ursula Le Guin may enjoy this interview, broadcast today, celebrating her 85th birthday. It should remain available for the next month or so.

>22 MrsLee: Or, for the whole story, get them to read The Ghosts of Evolution, especially the last chapter.

>21 pgmcc: >22 MrsLee: Of course, Lee could make her backyard even more interesting by keeping a lion or 3 as proxies for sabretooth cats, to keep the camels and burros under control ...

>25 hfglen: I already have a mountain lion (puma) which prowls in the creek-bed below my yard. One is enough, thank you!

>14 hfglen: I found a pdf copy of Ghost of Evolution online, enjoying it so far.

>27 NorthernStar: Must be the same one I found :)

This week's scenery was formed about 400-million years ago, when the South-Western Cape rammed the Falkland Islands as part of the assembling of Pangaea. All over the Western Cape there are quartzite strata on end like this, or variously twisted and buckled. This is at the northern entrance to the Swartberg Pass, just outside the village of Prince Albert. The other attraction for dragoneers is that there's a good CHEESE factory between here and the middle of town.

That is really beautiful. It it lichen all over that formation, or rust?

>30 MrsLee: The yellow-green is lichen, but most of that outcrop is bare rock.

Cheese and quartzite: two of my favourites.

The area I mapped for my undergrad thesis was predominantly quartzite and pelite.

Lovely photograph, Hugh.

>32 pgmcc: Thank you. If we add wine and olive oil from nearby farms does that count as a temptation to visit?

>33 hfglen: You are good at this temptation thing.

>33 hfglen: Very tempting indeed!

Humans who went extinct by Clive Finlayson. Well annotated study of proto-humans, Neanderthals and our own ancestors by someone whose research provides much of the underlying data, so it should have been good. Yet I found my attention wandering, and felt every now and then that his logic didn't quite connect all the dots, or that we were missing a vital paper presenting data that didn't fit the story we ere being told. So if I were scoring it I think I'd be looking at 2 1/2 stars.

The dark structure across the middle of the picture is not a wall; it is entirely natural. It is a diabase dyke, from which the surrounding rock has eroded away. This one is seen from Mapungubwe Hill, in the far north of South Africa. So far, indeed that the distant horizon on the left is in Zimbabwe.



I can't help wondering if a structure like this didn't perhaps inspire G.A. Farini's tall tale of "The Lost City of the Kalahari".

That's really neat!

Dykes are cool. We have many dykes from different geological epochs. Some quite recent, only 30 million years ago.

>39 pgmcc: Best book I can lay hands on quickly (which is lousy) suggests that this dyke is a tad older than some of yours, being a 200-million-year-old intrusion in a bed of 250-million year old Clarens sandstone. More securely, it's in the Limpopo Mobile Belt, which is the sticky (younger) bit between the really ancient fossil continents of the Kaapvaal Craton (much of South Africa) and Zimbabwe.

>40 hfglen: That's what I thought.

;-)

Seeds of Wealth by Henry Hobhouse. The stories may well be true, but the effect is marred by a howler of an error almost every time he mentions a plant name. Surely in a book about plants it's not too much to expect the names to be proofread by someone who can spell them? And that somebody would have explained to him the difference between a species and a cultivar (terms he misuses at every opportunity) ? On the other hand, one has the sneaking suspicion that some might have tried, but being an Eton-educated high-ranking bureaucrat, he didn't pay any attention. Pity, because it leaves me wondering how many other avoidable errors his book contains.

Pity. It looks like it might be interesting, but if he can't even get names and basic terminology right, it certainly calls into question the rest of his research.

Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich. The mixture as before, which is no bad thing. Our Stephanie has a disastrous vacation in Hawaii, and comes back to very much the usual mix of drama and mayhem. Laugh-out-loud funny in places, which is a good reason to keep reading. (Every now and then one needs a bit of totally incredible fluff like this.)

The Rockies: Pillars of a Continent by Scott Thybony. Again, what it says on the tin, which this time is decorated with a vivid yellow rectangle. As you might expect from a National Geographic production, the pictures are superb, the text less so. In fact, it reads like four NG articles run together, and fleshed out with loads of pictures. But no map, which may be a surprising omission.

This week's picture: a mushroom (probably Leucoagaricus) in a camp site at Letaba, Kruger Park, last year.

>46 hfglen:
Hugh, what is it that makes mushrooms so fascinating to look at? Is it their surreal appearance?

>47 pgmcc: Dunno, Pete. But they are challengingly photogenic, with a slight whiff of danger -- the wrong one will kill if eaten.

I love fungi photos. That one is very nice.

Flappers by Judith Mackrell. Six women who define 1920s culture: Diana Duff Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Tallulah Bankhead, Zelda Fitzgerald, Tamara de Lempicka and Josephine Baker. All famous, all not as different as one might suppose. All had to re-invent themselves after their magical decade; some did successfully, some didn't. Ms Mackrell tells their stories interestingly and sympathetically, and with full documentation. The epilogue, drawing parallels between the 20s and the 60s, might profitably have been expanded into a small book as a sequel; did the noughties repeat some of the themes again? Methinks we are still too close to tell. I can imagine several Dragoneers finding this a worthy read.

That does look interesting, Hugh.

When we worked in the cedar bush near our home, I used to find half eaten red or yellow mushrooms. I figured it was the squirrels who ate them. I've never looked those mushrooms up so I don't know if they would be poisonous to humans, but I loved finding them. It was as though I was in the squirrels' dining room. I love cedar forests.

A wilderness called Grand Canyon by Stewart Aitchison. Lovely pictures. Beginner-level text. Sounds like a great place to visit -- midweek, out of season.

Empire: How Britain made the modern world by Niall Ferguson. Despite the unending propaganda of the Politically Correct, the British Empire did spread good things. Like the same justice for all, a common language, the idea of an uncorrupt civil service and more. A very good read.

>54 spartan: I never found any dead squirrels, and the mushrooms were always quite fresh so I figure I cleared out the dining room each time I entered. I got yelled at a lot, though, reminded me of my mother when I got too close to the Christmas cookies she was making.

Saw this a couple of weeks ago at an upmarket hotel in a private botanical garden. How odd: years ago one waited in suspense for a week or 2 for one's pictures to come back from processing. Now with digital pictures the images are available immediately but not the time to do anything with them.

As expected, last week's orchid show yielded more beauties than the open gardens. Here's Psychopsis papilio, one I'd not met before. (Just imagine presenting this as a corsage to @MrsLee!)

>59 hfglen: I'm up for that! But until it can happen in reality, the internet version is lovely. :D

>59 hfglen: - lovely!

>59 hfglen: That is fantastic. It looks like it is about to strike!

Thank you, all! It was by no means the only breathtaking stunner on offer last Sunday; more in coming weeks, if you can stand them.

Rogerson's Book of Numbers by Barnaby Rogerson. A compendium of things that come in groups, from the 10 000 blessings of a peach to pairs of lovers and on to zero. Essays vary from a single sentence to a page or 2, making this a great loo book, or bedside reading, or anywhere else characterised by a short attention span. The downside is that many of the entries might have been more interesting at twice their actual length or longer. On the whole, I enjoyed this, and would recommend the book to several Dragoneers.

Against the fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke, with its sequel Beyond the fall of Night by Gregory Benford (LT catalogue notwithstanding).

My catalogue tells me this is a reread, though I have absolutely no recollection of the first time round. Indeed, I was expecting the storyline of Asimov's Nightfall, which it isn't. Instead, Clarke gives us a story of an ossified civilization persuaded to wake up by one of its vanishingly few young residents. I thoroughly enjoy Clarke's writing, but this time was put off by a persistent error of too many noughts in ages and spans of time to be possible. Benford picks up the story a few centuries later, with a very interesting new twist on the classic battle between good and evil trope. He is satisfyingly, or at least credibly, sparing with the noughts. Glad I (re-)read it, and hope the fact of having done so sticks this time.

>64 hfglen: from the 10 000 blessings of a peach to pairs of lovers and on to zero.

A few years ago my brother-in-law wrote a footnote on the concept of zero for a friend who was writing a mathematical book. I must find out what the book is. The brother-in-law has continued his zero-based theme and is writing an essay on zero. He likes it when I affectionately refer to him as an expert on nothing.

By the way, there is an interesting short story called, "Divide by Zero", written by Ted Chang. I thought it was very amusing and also thought provoking. It is about a mathematician who is developing a new type of mathematics and is somewhat disturbed by what her work reveals.

>66 pgmcc: Ah, the ultimate specialist: the expert who knows everything about nothing! I am delighted to have met the brother-in-law of such an expert.

The Ted Chang story sounds intriguing, and I shall have to look out for a copy. Any suggestions where I should start the search?

>67 hfglen:
I read it in a collection of stories by Ted Chiang called Stories of your Life and Others...and yes, I spelt his name incorrectly in the earlier post.

>68 pgmcc: I'll keep an eye peeled next time I go to the library. Many thanks.

The Man who saved Britain by Simon Wilder. A study (supposedly) of Ian Fleming, James Bond and postwar Britain. We learn far too much of the author's dissatisfaction with his home country on the way. So much so that I came away with the firm impression that this was the right story told by the wrong author. Possibly one quote on the back cover says it all: "Poor Bond is little more than a prop to Winder's obsession with the evils of Empire ... and his desire to denigrate Britain's intelligence services." (Stella Rimington, former head of MI5, in The Times).

At the Botanical Society's open gardens 2 weeks ago, a gent asked me if I'd seen the Eyed Pansy in the lawn where we were standing. It took me a while to realize that he was a lepidopterist, and this is what I was supposed to be looking at:

This is your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin. The author is an ex-record producer, now a neuroscientist. Even if he didn't say so several times in the book, it would become obvious. He explains in Great Detail how the brain responds to music, and why almost everybody likes it in some form or other. Interesting, but often heavy going.

>70 hfglen: Beautiful butterfly.

>70 hfglen: Looks like it might be a tiny one? As Peter says, lovely.

>70 hfglen: lovely!

>71 hfglen: interesting coincidence, I was just listening to a radio interview with a lady who doesn't enjoy music. She just doesn't "get" it. Apparently this condition affects about 2% of people. She was incredulous that some people might not enjoy art, though.

>73 MrsLee: An inch or 2 across.

>70 hfglen: Beautiful!

>74 NorthernStar: I've only known one person who didn't enjoy music at all and wouldn't listen to it, and he was blind. Odd coincidence.

>72 pgmcc: et al: Thank you all! Like @Bookmarque, the more I use my macro lens, the more I like it. (But mine probably has more of a story than hers: last October on our way home from the Cape, we stopped in a village called Hobhouse, on the Free State / Lesotho border. The place was a B&B / coffee place / artist's studio, and the artist who owned the place had a display of semi-defunct camera equipment. We started talking about it, and he indicated that seeing he didn't use it any more he would quite like to sell it if he could. There was this lens attached to a film camera, that looked as if it ought to work on my digital one, Tried it and it did, so I offered him what I thought I could afford, and he accepted it. So I left with a lens. Daughter googled on the way to the next town, and in a tone of amazement said that what I'd guessed was within $1 of a price paid the week before for the identical lens on eBay!)

Edited for lousy typing and grammar

In search of Moby Dick by Tim Severin. For a change, he doesn't cross oceans in some homemade, apparently unseaworthy craft. Instead, he takes public transport to remote parts of Indonesia, Philippines, Tonga and Fiji to interview the last few traditional whalers and ask about white whales. Turns out Melville mostly got his background at second or third hand, but there is a layer of fact well hidden under what he used. And what humanity doesn't know about whale behaviour would fill volumes; what the "experts" don't know that the ancients do would fill more. Probably worth reading, but I can't think who in the GD I'd recommend it to.

>77 hfglen: Nice story about the lens. It also appears you are a good judge of lens value.

>78 hfglen: The whale tale sounds interesting.

Speaking of large sea creature behaviour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74mdJUaRNaA

>80 pgmcc: Thank you, Pete. Interestingly, Severin records traditions in the Philippines and Indonesia of vast white rays that behave in many ways like white whales.

(By the way, the lens value was purest guesswork, and owed little to judgement. But thanks for the unearned compliment.)

>80 pgmcc: Thank you for that :)

And the butterfly too Hugh.

nope, my macro lens has no romantic tale, alas. It is a vintage piece, from the 80s most likely. I did lust after one for nearly 20 years before being able to afford one. I loves it. Great job getting yours in a storied way. (turns green)

>71 hfglen: Oliver Sacks wrote an excellent book about music and the brain, Musicophilia. It really made me think about my own response to music. I only really like listening to music as a background to songs. I don't enjoy instrumental music, and find much classical music actively irritating (much to the distress of my deeply musical mother). Sack's book gave me a better understanding of how other people's brains process music, and some insight into the workings of my own mind.

>83 Bookmarque: IMHO the 80s were probably about the best ever period for lenses, so I wish you happiness on that. Mine appears to be about 2000 vintage, and the reviews indicate that a worrying number of lemons slipped through quality control. Fortunately mine isn't one of those.

>84 SylviaC: I have a copy, left here 6 years ago by friends returning to Scotland after a visit. Maybe I should move it from the Well of Lost Causes to Mount TBR.

Last week a small butterfly, this week an even smaller orchid (Haraella retrocalla) from the show a few weeks ago.

Winston Churchill: never surrender. Heavily oversimplified biography, aimed at middle school. What is it doing in the adult section of the library?

Down the Kitchen Sink by Beverley Nichols. Some of the recipes in this slice of autobiography definitely look worth trying. I particularly like the one for potted shrimps, which starts with an instruction to hermetically seal the kitchen, as cats will go to any lengths to get the shrimps. Sometimes one needs stories of no importance told with good humour and a felicitous turn of phrase, but I suspect Mr Nichols's books are best appreciated in small and possibly infrequent doses. They could easily cloy.

>87 hfglen: Down the kitchen sink does not sound like an auspicious title for a cookery book! :)

>88 MrsLee: If it were a cookery book it would be! But it's really a collection of anecdotes from a long life, with a few recipes studded in the text here and there. :)

I see that I have missed a few Beverley Nichols books. I loved his earlier ones.

The Saint in London aka The Misfortunes of Mr Teal by Leslie Charteris. As some Neapolitans say, "Vecchia, ma ancora bella". (Old, but still beautiful.) I haven't read the Saint since early puberty, but devoured the books in the changeover from primary to high school. And then saw this one in the library. Took it out to see how busy the suck fairy has been. Hardly at all, as it turns out. But the stories that were more or less credibly contemporary c. 1960 (this lot were written in 1934), have faded from brightly coloured to a charmingly period shade of sepia. In so far as you can see the pictures at all through the clouds of cigarette smoke. The amounts of nicotine and alcohol consumed are truly phenomenal, and no more credible than much of the action.

>91 hfglen: interesting. I have almost all the Saint books, and absolutely adored them in my teens and 20s, but haven't re-read them in 30 years or so. One of these days when I get Mount TBR down to its dregs I'll try them again, too. I do love getting the in-joke when there's a reference to the Saint in some other author's work. I remember one book where a character had to give an alias, and he used "Sebastian Tombs."

>92 tardis: A Saint story or something totally different? He calls himself Tombs in one of the stories in this book.

It was a science fiction book - Google reminds me it was Satan's World, one of Poul Anderson's Polesotechnic League books:

"Latimer brought his gun to his lips—a salute?—lowered it again and addressed Falkayn. "You meet
Gahood of Neshketh." His vocal organs weren't quite right for pronouncing the names. "He will question
you. I have already told him you are called Sebastian Tombs. Are you from Earth?""

Although oddly, also according to Google, it's the actual name of quite a number of people :)

Thank you. Sadly, I don't think the library has that one.

Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich. One thing about Stephanie Plum, you know what you're getting the moment you pick the book up, without having to read the blurb. The description of the bridesmaid's dress in this one had the whole family laughing out loud, especially as DD gets that role next month -- mercifully, not in pink. Different this time and maybe indicating the possibility of serious social comment was the presence of a deeply troubled Afghanistan vet blowing himself up in Stephanie's flat.

The Seven Wonders of the World by John and Elizabeth Romer. Evidently the book of a TV series, which is not necessarily a crime. The descriptive chapters are interesting; indeed it is amazing how much they find to say lucidly about structures of which nothing is left. But, oh my friends and ah my enemies, they have a long conclusive chapter. And that loses the plot completely (I was about to use a much ruder expression), and disappears into a dense fog of metaphysical speculation, never to be seen again. Suffice to say that at one point in this stretch I fell asleep three times in the same sentence. Good thing I can return it to the library tomorrow!

Had the opportunity to see an amazing collection of succulents this week. Naturally I took the opportunity for some pictures, so here are flowers of Aloe vaombe, which comes originally from Madagascar.

>98 hfglen: Very nice!

>98 hfglen: Beautiful.

Raising Steam by Himself, the late great Sir Terry Pratchett. Sadly, the last Ankh-Morpork story, but as enjoyable as the best. While I have a problem with the idea of a pseudo-17th-century civilization like AM developing steam traction, I have to suspend disbelief and admire this story. Apart from the internal consistency, all the verbal felicities one looks forward to from a Sir pTerri book. 4 1/2 stars at least.

The Children of Kings by Marion Zimmer Bradley and Deborah J. Ross. One of the infuriating features of the local library is their habit of only ever getting one book of a series. In this case, they evidently think that the last of 10 (or more) means they have the whole series. Which makes for a somewhat confusing start to this read, but things sorted themselves out and the result was enjoyable. I would be curious to know how much of this story was due to each author, as I have twice tried to read MZB's Arthurian stories and failed to reach page 100. Not this time; it was a quick and satisfying read, right to the end. Recommended, if there's anybody (other than me) in the GD who hasn't read this series.

The Darkover series is one that I also recommend. I especially like the "hundred kingdoms" period.

Since Marion Zimmer Bradley has been dead for many years now, I would imagine that this book is mostly written by Deborah J. Ross. I didn't know that The Children of Kings had been published; thanks for the heads up.

>103 suitable1: Thank you! It was published in 2013. Certainly, the copy in the local library is almost new, and mine is only the second date stamp on the library slip; from the other I'd deduce that it's been on the shelf less than a month. Hope that helps.

Most of my Darkover books are still in boxes from the last move - twenty years ago. I am, however, finally building new bookcases so they can be added to LT.

>104 hfglen: wait. Your library still uses stamps on library slips?

I haven't read MZB in a long time. Hmm, maybe I should finish the Darkover series.

>106 catzteach: Yes indeed, but I don't know for how long. In the last month or 2 they've acquired electronic stickers on the inside back cover -- of no visible use as yet.

Counting my Chickens by Deborah Devonshire. Columns, articles and fragments from numerous scattered previous publications. The Duchess is the youngest of the Mitford sisters, and has a delightful sense of humour, as well as a very definite point of view, uniquely worth noting. Recommended.

Currently reading: Shovel and Sieve by Eric Rosenthal. Young 'uns of my age and home will remember Eric Rosenthal as one of the Three Wise Men who amused and amazed listeners to the steam radio (we had no TV way back then) with their wide general knowledge and erudition. This book is a collection of the stories told to his father (who was a mining agent in Johannesburg before WW2) by pioneer miners mostly on the Witwatersrand, but also further afield.

I want to read Counting My Chickens. I have her autobiography, Wait for Me. While not earth-shattering, it does provide an interesting perspective on life in upper class circles. She was clearly very talented at estate management. A book that I loved was The Mitfords: Letters Between Six Sisters. It gave a good feeling for the personalities of each of the sisters.

>108 SylviaC: Ah well Sylvia. I acquired it from the old dear I mentioned in "Joys and Jolts". So if you come to sunny Durbs, I'll be happy to let you read it while you're here ;)

>109 hfglen: I'll add it to my bucket list!

>107 hfglen: I read Wait for Me! a couple of months back and really enjoyed it - Counting My Chickens sounds like another good one.

>108 SylviaC: >111 Peace2: Thanks for the heads-up. I have been keeping an eye peeled for Wait for Me!, so far without success.

In the meanwhile, I found Lingo by Gaston Dorren in the library. It is unusual in being a book first published in another language (Taaltoerisme, in Dutch) and then translated and expanded, from 53 to 60 languages, into English. And very good it is, too. Short pieces on each of (well, many of) the languages of Europe; all of them fascination. Did you know that Maltese is the only Semitic language written with Latin letters? But now the book leaves me dreaming of examining the possibilities of a vacation in South Ossetia (Mountains! Snow leopards! Ossetian! Caucasian Persian-esque cooking! What's not to like?). In sum, so recommendable that I'd be curious to see the Dutch original.

Missing Microbes by Martin Blaser. Hmmmz. Very interesting account of the collateral damage done by antibiotics. Mostly based on the author's own research done within the last 20 years, and so with large amounts of fascinating detail. But that said, I kept having thoughts along the lines of "didn't I learn something like this in undergraduate somewhat over 40 years ago?". I'm sure I've had innumerable, er, differences of opinion with medics prescribing antibiotics first and thinking later if at all. And Dr Blaser now gives a very impressive series of reasons why one should ask pointed and barbed questions of any medic who waves a prescription without explanation, and go on asking until the answer is satisfactory. Required reading for anybody who has to interact with medics, and should be engraved upon the souls of said medics.

After a long break, a picture for @pgmcc's return from his secret debriefing.



It's taken from Chapman's Peak Drive on the Cape Peninsula looking towards Kommetjie. The rock below the road is granite, with sandstone above; the road is exactly on the contact. If the colour looks odd, it's because the picture was taken 50 years ago. (I found the negative while clearing out a trunk this morning.)

>113 hfglen:, I've been increasingly irritated with my long-term general physician because of this same tendency to prescribe pills *just because you can*. I may have to read your Missing Microbes book so that I can spike her practice.

>114 hfglen: Hugh, do you like driving along roads like that?

It's a beautiful view, and the distant bluff looks just like many views along the Bruce Peninsula on the Georgian Bay side north of Wiarton, Ontario.

>116 nhlsecord: Thank you, Norma. Not particularly. For one thing, the acrophobia kicks in, and for another, South Africans have a bad habit of approaching blind corners on the wrong side of the road. This one has the added charm that the sandstone is unstable, and so in storms (or when the baboons are feeling playful) there are also rockfalls on the road.

>117 hfglen:
Sounds like some good reasons to avoid that road!

I'd likely be passengering on the floor of the back seat. Large open spaces combined with vehicles going fast or even slow - well, it's not my best situation!

>114 hfglen: That is a great use of the natural geology. The differential weather between the sandstone and the granite provide a ledge on the harder rock for the road. Nice use of the terrain.

Along the east coast of County Antrim in Northern Ireland the coast road winds its way along the shore. On the landward side one finds chalk cliffs topped with basaltic layers from the time when lava flowed around the region. The chalk bedding planes slope towards the coast. The basalt above has fissures. Rainwater works its way down through the basalt and lubricates the interface between the chalk and the basalt resulting in the occasional slab of basalt slipping down towards the road. No baboons, except at the Belfast Zoo which is located on this road, but the same effect.

>120 pgmcc: You're lucky with the baboons. The Cape Peninsula troops are so good at sponging off humans that they have been described as "only one Jamie Oliver movie away from baking their own bread".

>120 pgmcc: (continued, after due thought) Somehow basalt on top of chalk doesn't sound even slightly stable. The high Drakensberg is basalt on sandstone, which has given rise to many shelters (too shallow to be real caves), a significant number of which have often spectacular San paintings.

The Churchill Factor. This is the third book by Boris Johnson I've read. The dream of Rome was excellent, but Have I got views for you I found almost unreadable. In this one he's back on form. I see one of the LT reviews says he mentions both sides of any disagreement about Churchill. Sure he does, but always to demolish the anti-Churchill side. The result comes close to hagiography rather than biography, but may at that be a welcome antidote to the politically correct Churchill-bashing one sees too much of. And we should remember that this is the Churchill Foundation's 50th anniversary volume. And that most of the discussion in LT would be illegal or impossible had he never lived (or lost WW2). Any way up, BJ writes well, and I shall certainly keep eyes peeled for more of his in the library.

>119 nhlsecord: Today the e-mail disgorged the first notice of a festival of heritage cars, trains, planes, farm machinery and more at a place near Ficksburg, Free State, in March-April 2017 (it takes 18 months for overseas tour operators to get their act together, apparently). A quick look at the map showed that Katse Dam in Lesotho is very reachable from there. Had the wicked thought that it would be fun to have you along, in which case I'd plan a detour to Molimo Nthuse Pass, Lesotho. The name means "God Help Us Pass", which about says it all.

Thendara House by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I've tried two or three of her Arthurian books, and failed to make page 100. But did manage to finish and enjoy a very late Darkover story, so tried this one. Good start and middle, but seemed to rather run out of steam towards the end. After a long stretch of internal agonising (which IMHO could have been halved without loss) it suddenly ended in enormous haste. Yet I may dip my toes into Darkover again if the opportunity offers; it's an interesting world. Those Dragoneers who insist on lesbian lead characters would love this one, as the description appears to fit nearly all the women in the story, at over-great length.

Here's the Umgeni Steam Railway leaving Inchanga Station at lunch time today.



Not visible on this picture, but others I took today show that this line, like most in southern Africa, is laid to the "Cape Gauge"of 3'6". Makes me wish I could go and compare with the railways in @pgmcc's neck of the woods: Irish Gauge is 5'2", about the widest surviving anywhere, which one feels should make for slightly roomier accommodation.

My wife is still in France and is complaining of the heat. Apparently trains were cancelled because the tracks had expanded in the heat and posed a risk of derailment.

>127 pgmcc: That's a change from "the wrong kind of snow" and "leaves on the line"!

Here we often get, "cows on the line".

On our regional rail, (and I'm sorry, guys, but I've no idea what the local gauge might be) we are warned about "slippery rail season" which usually translates to the late wet autumn.

>126 hfglen: I do love steam trains! Thanks for sharing.

Last week many trains in Britain were forced to obey speed restrictions due to the heat; I think temperatures of up to 39C were recorded in London.

>131 Sakerfalcon: Thank you! *bows*

The Innovators by Walter Isaacson. A veritable brick, at almost 500 pages + notes, references and index. But nevertheless an interesting and solid read, being a history of computers from Babbage's Difference Engine to the present day. Which probably means the later chapters will start to date quite quickly. Worth reading before they do.

Hugh, something that may be of interest to you: https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/2015/07/08/mass-extinction-260m-years...

Not really an academic source but it does reference an academic paper.

Pete, ever so many thanks! I have forwarded the link to the Archaeological Society, and SWMBO reports that she heard this story on the Afrikaans (steam-radio) news yesterday. The lead picture is surely Seven-Weeks Poort, a very scenic place that's also home to an exquisitely rare protea (among other wonders). I'd love to show it to you. (Other Dragoneers might be enchanted by the wine and CHEESE made nearby.)

>134 hfglen:
Hugh, while I woukd love to see the protea do not think I would not also be interested in the wine and cheese.
;-)

100 things you will never find, put together by Daniel Smith. If this wasn't a library book (and so has to be returned in a defined time), it would be a great loo book. A hundred essays on all sorts of things that either don't exist any more or have never existed. The woo-woo factor is present, but kept under control. Great pictures, but a mildly annoying font and too many typos.

Currently reading (different books in different places and at different times of day):
How the light gets in by Louise Penny. The darkest Armand Gamache I've seen, and definitely not a night-time read.
Plum Spooky by Janet Evanovich -- the expected fluff of Stephanie Plum, but confusingly with two key characters from the Diesel series.
Mountains of the Mind by Robert Macfarlane. Evidently a first book by someone fascinated by mountains; a historical study of the interplay between geology and mountaineering.

>124 hfglen: You wouldn't be the first person to have that wicked thought, hence my knowledge of vehicle flooring and my lack of faith in people. People tend to think my fears are amusing.

One of my sisters was in Lesotho once. She had a fright of another kind - a man who had some kind of power over her paperwork led her to think he wasn't ever going to let her leave alive. She still has nightmares about it. It was the only place in Africa that gave her such a problem.

These are examples of the fear of not having control, I think. People are interesting.

>125 hfglen: I liked the Darkover novels and I still have several. I've read them all twice but I'm not sure how they would turn out a 3rd time.

One of the things I like best about them now is the rule that one must fight with a weapon that doesn't leave the hands, such as a knife. I wish we could impose that rule on our world.

>138 nhlsecord: "one must fight with a weapon that doesn't leave the hands"

Ohhh, I like that! I'm going to steal that for my D&D Campaign, I'll have a Lawful Neutral town enact that as one of its random restrictions!

I heard Marion Zimmer Bradley speak at a WorldCon way back in time. She said something about plot being Johnny "gets his a** caught in a bear trap and has many adventures getting it out". I think she adhered to that idea when writing the Darkover novels but less so when she was doing things like Mists of Avalon. Like others, I still have a couple of the Darkover titles on my shelves, although I don't think I'm quite as enamored of them as I was in my 20's.

>140 jillmwo: Wow, I love that plot description. I thik just to cofuzzle the characters I'll have them run into a bunch of zombies, one of which has its posterior caught i a bear trap!

n!!! Why is my n key sticking! Grrrr!

Wow, I love that plot description. I think just to confuzzle the characters I'll have them run into a bunch of zombies, one of which has its posterior caught in a bear trap!

>141 mrgrooism: Time to clean the keyboard! :) I've actually seen bear traps, it's possible!

>142 MrsLee: Me too, and yeah, Q-Tip with alcohol time!

"Ag pleeez Deddy, wontcha take us off to Durban,
It's only eight hours in the Chevrolet ..."

Here is a recording of the whole song -- I quoted the 4th verse -- with its Politically Incorrect chorus.

And so this week we have an almost-contemporary Chevy (such as those revolting kids knew) seen this morning at a car show at Scottburgh, just 55 km / 35 miles south of Durban.

The Secrets of the Exodus by Messod Sabbah and Roger Sabbah. Not quite as woo-woo as I feared, but still lacking in hard evidence. That said, I must beg to differ from one LT review: the authors specifically say, several times, that there is no evidence for the exodus of a bunch of Hebrew slaves for the excellent reasons that (1) they weren't slaves and (2) they weren't yet called Hebrews. Apparently there is, however, evidence for the "re-deployment" of a bunch of monotheist dissidents into a threatened border area of the then Egyptian empire, namely Canaan. Any more would violate the rules of the pub, so I'll stop there. But it would be interesting to see what DNA evidence can tell us of the relationships between Coptic Egyptians, Sephardic Jews, the Maasai and the vhaLemba (this last group live in the north-eastern corner of South Africa, and their traditional practices are almost identical to the Jewish Kosher laws).

Went to Paradise Valley with the Hillcrest Heritage Society yesterday. It's hard to believe that such a quiet, calm place sits just 8 miles from the centre of Durban, squeezed between two freeways, one of which carries more heavy loads than any other in the country.



A dam was built here in the 1870s, which supplied 10 (or possibly 35) million gallons of water a day, and was Durban's main water supply. Until 1 June 1905, when a flood totally destroyed the installation. The valley was scoured clean of vegetation again in 1987 and 1999, each time by a flood of a magnitude supposed to happen only once in 100 years.

There's an abutment of a bridge associated with the dam peeking out of the vegetation in the middle of the picture.

What kind of leaves are in the right foreground?

>147 SylviaC: Coast Strelitzia or Natal Wild Banana, Strelitzia nicolai. It's a tree-size relative of the Bird-of-Paradise flower that Los Angeles evidently think they invented (that one comes from the Eastern Cape). This one has white-and-blue flowers, and is actually a bit of a thug around here -- takes over everywhere. But sorry, Sylvia, it won't grow in Canada -- it's frost tender.

>147 SylviaC: Well, darn... A few of those in my front yard would look pretty impressive!

>149 SylviaC: Yes, if you could keep them down to a few where you want them ... fortunately, they can't take the cold.

Now we are past it by Allison Vale. Considering the (ahem!) average age of many Dragoneers, this may be the ideal loo book for the seniors among us. Humorous and by no means unsympathetic stories about the middle-aged (late middle, late-late middle, extremely-late middle aged), usually short enough that the Alzheimer-challenged get to the end before they forget the beginning. Highly recommendable to the right audience.

>151 hfglen: I have no idea who you are talking about. ;)

>152 MrsLee: Really?! ;-P

Maritime South Africa by B. D. Ingpen and Robert Pabst. Lots of exterior views of every conceivable kind of ship to grace South Africa's shores from the 17th to 20th centuries, but only 2 or 3 interiors, and those bridge or engine room. Interesting that I picked this one and another, published just one year earlier, on Great Rivers of the World, up on the same trip to the library. In the latter, all the pictures are lit so as to suggest 4:30 pm on a wet London November afternoon (which is quite an achievement for the ones of the Nile!), but in the shipping one the sun shines where appropriate.

Yesterday was my Thingaversary (can't find the Thingaversary thread). I'm claiming the 80-odd books the old dear gave me in the last couple of months as a Thingaversary haul. For one thing, I now have piles on the floor, and for another, funds are lacking.

Happy Thingaversary!

Recent thread

Happy Thingaversary, Hugh. It looks like you have taken the Thingaversary haul seriously and have been planning it for some time.

80 books appears to have satisfied the requirement if @pgmcc isn't fussing at you. I hope you enjoy the Thingaversary haul!!!

>156 pgmcc: I'm relieved, though the enforcers would have a long journey to get here!

Happy Thingaversary! I wish you another year of excellent reading!

Happy Thingaversary, and may you have many more! Now, read those 80 books and sort them so you will have room for the 160 books next year. ;)

Wankie: the story of a great game reserve by Ted Davison In the "good old days when I wur a lad" Wankie (now spelt Hwange) was one of the best places to see game in southern Africa, and so was on many a bucket list, including mine. The game is apparently still there, and the location is as it always was, on the edge of the Kalahari sand just 160 km / 100 miles from Victoria Falls. But in the last 30 years or so no money at all has been spent on tourist facilities, which are now sadly run down from Ted Davison's days. Davison was the first Warden of the reserve, from its founding in 1927 until he was transferred to Head Office (sad day!) in 1961, shortly before he reached retirement age and at the start of the Reserve's golden age. The book is not so much a history as an often disjointed series of anecdotes and facts, many but not all in more-or-less chronological order, written pretty well as he would have told them in the language of a Rhodesian of his generation (which Politically Correct 21st-century residents may find offensive). The book was given to me, and has been sitting on Mt. TBR for some years. I am glad to have it and more pleased to be reminded by every page of the joys of the bush.

This week's picture is of a fairly ordinary piece of Bushmanland (inland of Namaqualand), somewhere -- I've forgotten where -- within about 80 km / 50 miles of Pofadder. Pofadder is a "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" type dump, but there's nothing else in that range. The point is that this is "bokdrol-spitting" country. (See post 16 of the weekend thread here.) The picture is a scan of a 40-year-old negative, and so is of poor quality.

>162 hfglen: I think it is a great photograph. It give a great sense of how vast the place is.

Speaking of "blink-and-you'll-miss-it" places I am reminded of a story told by my Uncle John. He was a customs officer based in a small town called Clones on the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. One day a comedian came to town and was giving a show in the local hall. His first joke was:

"I arrived here today and walked up the main street and back down the same street and I'd seen the place twice."

Nobody laughed...at that joke or any other of his jokes that night.

:-)

>162 hfglen: Wow! For a second I thought you had taken a picture of the same place I was visiting this weekend! Only the foliage would be various sages. One of which, rabbit brush, is blooming yellow right now and so makes for a bit of color. If you Google images of Christmas Valley, Oregon. USA, you will see some of it. Also Abert Rim and Abert Lake. Very interesting geology. The lake is a alkali lake, huge, but mostly dry right now. It has the look of being iced over with splotches of red, green and yellow, depending on the algae and other chemicals. Smells like sulphur. A lovely drive, I think I saw about three cars in 3 hours of driving.

>164 MrsLee: Thank you! The vegetation is mostly the same family as your sages, and also aromatic, but smaller and woodier. But a lot less happens there than around Christmas Valley. The area is chiefly noted for the sharp slaty stones that eat car tyres; this is about where we got the second puncture in 30 km -- with only one spare, and the nearest fixit guy 90 km away in Pofadder. Flagged down the first (and only, while we were there) passer-by, some 4 hours after this picture.

The Maldives Mystery by Thor Heyerdahl. To echo an often crudely applied Neapolitan phrase, "vecchia ma ancora bella". Thirty years on, there has to be another chapter or two in the story of Maldivian prehistory. In too many of Heyerdahl's other books, the fallacy of "we showed it could have happened like this, therefore this is the way it did happen" is rampant, and counter evidence is, ahem, down-played. So it would be interesting to see another, more recent take on the story. However it seems that Heyerdahl and his colleagues were indeed the first proper archaeologists to take the Maldives seriously. Whether or not one accepts his conclusions (and I have now way of knowing how far one can), this is a fascinating, thought provoking and well written book.

Currently reading: The Table of Less Valued Knights by Marie Phillips. As one LT review almost puts it, an Arthurian tale seen through a Monty Python prism. Hilarious, but don't let your maiden aunt anywhere near it. Question (irrelevant to the plot): If Sir Humphrey had had a short-tempered Zulu colleague, could you describe the colleague as "a dark and stormy knight"?

>166 hfglen: I've enjoyed every book of Heyerdahl's that I've read, for the adventures if nothing else. Sometimes the conclusions don't seem as important as the curiosity to me.

>167 hfglen:, that looks hysterical. I currently have Green Smoke wending its way to me because @Imyril recommended as something she'd loved from her childhood. It might be fun to read The table of less valued knights at the same time.

One of the authors I'm currently reading is Michael Dirda and he talks about the importance of what he calls "patterning works". Those are texts that represent a common foundation; authors make references to them as a matter of course because it's assumed that the reader will automatically recognize an allusion, even if the original work isn't referenced by name. It's the kind of thing done in Silverlock where the text is simply a pack of literary allusions running throughout the plot. It's also the kind of humor that Terry Pratchett does so well in things like Wyrd Sisters. He doesn't blatantly reference Macbeth but it's there throughout.

What makes the interesting to my (blatantly rambling and easily distracted) brain, is how (as we get further and further away from the original patterning work in linear time) we increasingly play with the elements of humor in turning such works upside down. I don't know if my meaning in that sentence is clear or if I need to go get my second cup of coffee, but I am intrigued by your Arthurian recommendation and now I want to go track it down.

ooooh, SHINY

>168 MrsLee: The Maldives Mystery is indeed well written. But there's very little adventure here -- he's morphed from a young, fearless "Indiana Jones" into a somewhat bureaucratic senior museum curator, and now travels by scheduled flights as far as possible. And from there in borrowed ships with crew that know how to sail them, so no chance of problems. With that background, the conclusions take on more importance than they used to.

>169 jillmwo: It is. (I've just finished it -- not quite in one sitting, but close.) Arthur makes a cameo appearance in the early chapters, but then stays in the background as someone the lead characters really don't want to get to hear of what they're up to. One "pattern trope" I rather liked was when the heroine, half magically transformed into a boy (for disguise) is in the forest after an archery lesson, and finds herself pursued by an adoring unicorn. In order not to blow her cover, she shoots and kills it. I'd suggest getting hold of a copy ASAP; I'm pretty sure (" 'Almost entirely sure?'said Martha, 'that's less sure than I'd like'.") you'll love it.

Venice, pure city by Peter Ackroyd. Clearly, he loves Venice. To the point of hiding the obvious reverses and faults as far as possible. But beyond that, what? It is not a proper history, nor is it a geographical study. Where are the effects of the rise of the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, or the Dutch East India Company? What about the city's (lack of) plumbing, and the concentration of raw sewage in the lagoon? These are swept aside in less than a whole sentence. Some reader has pencilled the comment "pretentious bollocks" into the library's copy of another of Ackroyd's works (not without reason). Here, too, the purple passages are marked as much by pretentiousness as by anything helpful to the reader. There is probably space for a good history of the city, but this is not it. Which is a pity, because the author is capable of writing well.

I have just read the amazing but almost plausible statement that the flow over the Aughrabies Falls (Orange / Gariep River, Northern Cape) is twice that of the Victoria Falls. This is amazing considering the falls are in a desert. Here are some side falls, seen at peak flow c. 1973.

That's an amazing photo. How can there be so much water flowing through a desert?

The river rises in the well-watered highlands of Lesotho, and flows westwards through ever-drier country. Halfway to the Atlantic, it is joined by the Vaal, which rises in the well-watered high grasslands of Mpumalanga, and also takes a large volume of water westwards. The combined river moves a relatively vast amount of water, and flows through some of our driest, indeed desert, country.

Wow, that's an incredible picture! It must be amazing to see in real life.

Thank you, Jill and Sylvia! Provided there's not a drought, it is indeed amazing, if not better than that. The SANParks restcamp is within walking distance, and very comfortable (hint hint).

Has anybody here read The Moth, or attended one of the events on which it is based? The book is 50 stories selected from an indefinite number of evenings of story-telling. I think I might have been channelling a distant memory of Herman Charles Bosman's Schalk Lourens stories when I took this one out of the library. Regrettably, the tales here are nothing like. Oom Schalk's stories are often moving, or usually bittersweet, but the collection almost always leaves the reader with a wry smile. Not here. Of the 50 stories in The Moth, every single one is a downer. Pity, as they are well told. (I often pick books up in the library, look at them and think 'If this is a DNF, at least I can return it and I haven't lost money on the deal'. In this case I finished the book, but am pleased to return the book to the library wit the thought that I didn't part with money to experience it.)

A friend of mine has won a place in the Moth Irish final/grand slam. It appears from her description to be a public speaking competition like Toast Masters but without the coaching.

She is concerned that the final is being run by the U.S. organisers and in her experience these people judge the talks on the basis of angst level rather than content.

I have told her I will attend the session.

My understanding is that the participants are given a one word theme to talk on. While that could work for an entertaining evening with drink taken I cannot see it generating stories worth publishing. I suppose participants might be interested in buying the book.

Just briefly to let y'all know I'm AFK to roughly the end of the month.

Have fun! Let us know if we need to send out the Saint Bernards with small kegs of brandy...

Enjoy your trip! Looking forward to the report.

Travel safely and take lots of pictures!

Thanks for letting us know! Take care.

While I was away I did continue reading, so it's time to resurrect this thread.

Started The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny, but skimmed the latter half. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but there were just more attractive things to read.

Kruger National Park questions and answers contained more immediately applicable information, in small, bite-sized pieces. Recommended if you're planning a trip to Kruger, or actually there, but infinitely frustrating otherwise.

The House of Mitford by Jonathan Guinness, who turns out to be the son of Diana Mitford by her first marriage. A veritable brick: 600+ pages of densely written biography. On the other hand, one could and should also say, the story of most colourful family of the 1920s, told by someone who knew them intimately. A long but satisfying read.

and since coming home:

A merchant family in early Natal, of which LT acknowledges the existence of two copies, but still the touchstone doesn't work. Joseph Fleetwood Churchill arrived in Durban in 1850 with nothing, as near as makes no difference. (Probably not as badly off as the family whose diaries are reprinted in Dear Louisa -- they lost everything in a shipwreck on arrival. However.) Joseph set up as a merchant, married well, made a fortune, spent many years working for the Public Good as mayor, M.P., chairman of a school board and more. He died laden with honours but not age (he was only 53) in 1880. The book is made up of diaries and letters to stay-at-home members of the family, and manages to convey the history of an exciting period of history as narrated by real, live human beings. I think @MrsLee would enjoy this if she could find a copy; it would be an interesting comparison with her favourite period of "Wild West" history.

In passing I must note that in the 1970s A.A. Balkema (then of Cape Town) published a number of fascinating historical documents in decently produced editions. He then moved to Rotterdam, where he died in due course. Sadly, the company has been bought out, and good things like this are no longer published.

Did anybody here know that today is International Penguin Day? Marked in Cape Town by the ceremonial release of 14 orphaned penguins; though I could visualise a spate of bad jokes about nuns.

>186 hfglen: I think I speak not only for myself but numerous other people on LT when I reply to your question with, "No!"

What is the appropriate tradition for celebrating International Penguin Day? Inquiring minds want to know.

Evidently, scaring the bejazus out of some innocent orphaned penguins by transporting them in closed boxes to a beach and turfing them out in a blaze of noisy publicity into a community of other penguins that doesn't necessarily want a bunch of refugees. Don't know what they do in Antarctica ...

Life, Love and Death in the Lowveld by Wilf Nussey -- touchstone not working; here is the work page.

A collection of tales from a village in the depths of the Lowveld. Like those of Herman Charles Bosman's Oom Schalk Lourens, they vary between the bittersweet and the hilarious, but unlike Oom Schalk, the raconteur in this lot is educated and at least somewhat worldly-wise. I have quoted from the first tale in my Kruger trip report, but cannot forbear to share the images from the story of the "fraffly uppah"Englishman who endeavoured to establish a Hunt in the village (or maybe just down the road at Ofcolaco, a real place). At tremendous expense he imported a pack of some 30 foxhounds, and acquired a horn (spare part from a 1920s Vauxhall) from the local general dealer. In due course he, the hounds, a selection of local farm dogs and such local gentry as he could round up were ready. He announced that the hounds would set out on the first tootle of the horn, which he then blew. The sound, says Mr Nussey, was no melodious tootle, but rather "a blast from a flatulent elephant". Unfortunately nobody told the hounds about the local wildlife, and so they lost the prepared trail and chased a sounder of bush-pigs instead. Only five of the hounds were ever seen again, but six months later the vet commented on the number of farm mongrel pups sporting foxhound colouration and erect tails.

I am delighted that this work is also available as an e-book, because it means I can aim a BB at @MrsLee; I'd love to hear how it fits with her Western upbringing.

>190 hfglen: It does sound delightful, and I would love to read it, but the price is up there for an ebook. I've put it on my wishlist though, so perhaps someone will come through with it during the holidays for me. :) I'm reading a book at the moment with stories of various pioneer families to the area I grew up in. Sadly, the author is not very talented with words and phrasing, but kudos to her for interviewing, researching and writing it down.

A curious Friendship by Anna Thomasson.

Many years ago I took great delight in visiting the Rex Whistler exhibition at Plas Newydd, Anglesey. Even longer ago, an elderly and kindly friend of my parents introduced (mini-)me to a series of Shell advertisements (in ancient numbers of Country Life?) depicting English counties -- we were oh so colonial back then. Only now do I discover that the ads were drawn by the same Rex Whistler; evidently it would be worth while to make or renew acquaintance with his drawings. It would be simplistic to say "this book is the ultimate biography of Rex Whistler", because although Ms Thomasson explores deeply into his character, he is only one of the two leading characters in the book, and arguably the less important. Edith Olivier lived in a village near Salisbury, Wiltshire, all her life. And yet she knew most of the people worth knowing in England in the first half of the 20th century. The book is really about the relationship between her and Rex. She was about 30 years older than him, so more of a mother-substitute than a lover. The more so as Rex W's sexuality was at best doubtful. In very brief, the author makes a good case that it is a tragedy that Rex was killed in France less than six weeks after D-day. A dense, beautifully written book and, as the author's first, a most hopeful portent of reading pleasure to come.

A history of London in 50 lives by David Long. One may question the premise that 50 short biographical essays could convey any meaningful idea of the history of a great city. These don't, and not only because of the idiosyncratic choice of subjects. That said, it was an entertaining read, and I don't regret taking it out of the library.

The Impossible Five by Justin Fox (no touchstone). A well-known (around here, at least) journalist goes into the wild blue yonder in search of some of South Africa's most elusive mammals. Great stories, well told. It's curious that in almost every case, finding the animal involves enlisting the help of experts attached to a most luxurious private game reserve. On the other hand, the said experts are portrayed more-than-credibly, and are usually at least as interesting as the target animals. Recommended to the Dragoneers who enjoyed my trip report.

>194 hfglen: That does sound good, and I suspect it will fire up my wanderlust ...

>195 Sakerfalcon: Now let me set about laying a cheese trail ...

Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. Originally written in 1953, and only partly revised later. Predictably, the technology creaks, therefore (listening to tapes? mainframe computers? fax machines? in the 21st century?). Nevertheless, it's a great story, with page-turning adventure and thought-provoking philosophy, and has shown itself remarkably immune to the suck fairy. Worth reading or re-reading, as appropriate.

The Shadow Matrix by Marion Zimmer Bradley. What can I say that hasn't been said before? Not much. But I would like to learn more about the environment of Darkover. (Thinks: Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin and Terry Pratchett are all served by good or at least plausible maps of their worlds; I really miss a map of Darkover. It would be an interesting place to visit, maybe for as long as a year or 2 (harking back to a conversation in this pub a year or 3 back), but I'd hate to live there!

Digging for Richard III by Michael Pitts. What a delightful piece of nominative determinism; surely enough to make one want to pick the book up at the library. Having done so, one is far from disappointed. The author evidently was not part of the team, but equally clearly knows many of them and has spent considerable time interviewing all of them, doing his homework and thinking matters through. The result is a mystery to gladden @MrsLee's heart. How did Richard III die? What happened to the body? Is there any evidence left, 500 years later? How did they find out? And how does knowing the answer change things for anybody? He gives answers to all of these, but not in that order. Without being too spoilerific, let me add that the inquest evidence he presents, omits absolutely none of the gore. And it's so readable one can't put it down, however hard it is to hang on to one's supper. This is a truly remarkable read.

>199 hfglen: That looks quite interesting!

Having just finished The Daughter of Time, that book tempts me. I enjoyed the documentary about the discovery of his remains as well.

>201 Bookmarque: The cast of the book includes the crew of the TV documentary and their managers!

Eating up Italy by Matthew Fort. Nutty middle-aged English foodie travels up Italy from Reggio Calabria to Turin, on a Vespa. (@Meredy, I envy but cannot equal your conciseness!) Each chapter ends with recipes for some of the goodies (often a courtesy title, that) he ate on that leg of the journey. Interesting story, but I'm not inspired to try any of the foods.

Eish, but is it English? by Rajend Mesthrie. A very interesting description of the many and varied forms English takes in this mad and sunny land. I live in the hope of hearing a visiting New World Dragoneer (bearing in mind that USAnian is rather uniform to our ears) coming out with a statement like "Eish! But (Zulu-English) there is being too much of (SA-Indian-English) difference in your English!" -- which you could in theory hear without too much of difficulty in Durban.

In last week's weekend thread I mentioned a book on the mission at Griquatown, and @jillmwo asked nicely to be kept posted. So in response:

I have started reading The mission at Griquatown. Most of it is excerpts from reports to the London Missionary Society; the prose of these is leaden. However there is some Burchell; his style is baroque. Pity. The story could be interesting. At the start (1801), the locals were entirely nomadic, somewhere between hunter-gatherers and pastoralists. By the end of the story in the book (1821) they were settled, and grew crops as well as keeping sheep, cattle and goats. At this stage the Kok family was already prominent, which has bearing on the story I want to tell Jill.

As I mentioned in the weekend thread, Griquatown had its own currency of silver and bronze coins in 1815-16, a good 60 years before anywhere else in southern Africa. Most of these were recalled and melted down, and the few that escaped are now highly sought-after rarities. Shortly after the discovery of diamonds not far from Griquatown, Adam Kok III decided, or was persuaded, that his people would do better some 1000 km away, in a well watered area where they would be a buffer between the Zulu, Xhosa and Sotho. So he and his followers moved, and founded a town called Kokstad, in an area called East Griqualand. (Look it up in Google earth.) In the course of the last week it was announced in the local press that Kokstad is issuing its own currency -- paper, this time. Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.

Ten Big Ones -- more adventures of Stephanie Plum. One LT review notes that she doesn't develop from one story to the next. This may not be a bad thing; would you like it if the candy you like changes flavour from one batch to the next?

Traitor's Sun by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Not quite as lightweight, but still enjoyable. It may not matter too much if one reads the Darkover books out of sequence, as long as they're close enough together that you remember what happened from one to the next. At least then one can nod sagely when a familiar name comes up.

>204 hfglen: *Very* cool.

I love the Stephanie Plum books! Total brain candy! And I wouldn't want them to change. I do believe there's a new one out.

>207 catzteach: That must be number what? About 21? I'll look out for it.

>206 jillmwo: Something else you might enjoy. A report by missionaries in 1814 reports that Mr Burchell, the naturalist, had found a new route from Graaff Reinet (the furthest-flung administrative outpost of the Cape Colony at the time, and the "nearest" London Missionary Society office to the trans-Orange-River missions) to Griquatown. This would be a much quicker journey than the route used up to that time, and should take about a month to six weeks by oxwagon (!). I've just asked Google Maps for their favoured route -- more or less the same as Burchell's. It's 550 km, tar all the way and should take about 6 1/2 hours (according to Google).

But then our nearest suburban centre is where it is because a long time ago it was the second overnight stop on the wagon road from D'Urban to Pietermaritzburg. It's about 25 km from the middle of Durban (and 60-70 from Pietermaritzburg).

Hugh, today I took my mother to a wound care specialist doctor. A delightful man, he had an accent I couldn't quite place. Turns out he is from South Africa! Now my ear has something to "hear" when I read your posts. :) I didn't get where he was from, will ask him next time. Are all South African men charming? My exposure to two of them has proven it to be so.

>208 hfglen: I think it's number 22, but not sure.

I've only heard a South African accent on TV (sports). It has sounded similar to a British accent. I'm assuming there are different accents depending on the area?

>209 MrsLee: >210 catzteach: *bows* Why thank you, good ladies! Lee, there are enough South African males to cover the whole spectrum from total bar-stewards (the sign in the entrance to the pub forbids me naming an obvious example) to angels. Catz, we have a wide variety of accents from plummy Brit through guttural Boer and curried to incomprehensibly African. Area, ancestry and education (or lack thereof) all have an influence. So L should ask Lee if the Doctor is Afrikaans or English speaking, Cape, Natal or Transvaal, and if Cape then where? By way of interest, I found this clip of General Smuts on Youtube. He speaks English with the mother-tongue-Afrikaans accent of Malmesbury (Western Cape) -- if I were saying this rather than typing it, I'd mention the "brei"-r's. This evening I'm going to a lecture by my friend an colleague Prof. Braam van Wyk, who grew up on a farm near Wolmaransstad (North-West), and sounds almost the same, but with rolled r's.

>211 hfglen: Hmm, his r's were not so rolly. When I heard him, my mind immediately rejected England and went roving through the colonies. Certainly not Australian, and since I've been listening to a lot of New Zealanders watching the Hobbit specials, I eliminated that. I would call it a milder accent than both Australia and New Zealand. English, but with pauses and accents in different places. And that is the extent of my language abilities! :)

>212 MrsLee: Eastern Cape? Natal, perhaps? Especially if he calls that animal with long ears that hops away through the bush when you shine a torch on it at night a vundla (Xhosa, scrub-hare) and reserves the term bunny for a half or quarter loaf of bread, hollowed out and filled with curry (bunny-chow, from Gujarati bhania, a trader).

LOL, I'll ask him. Not sure how long he has been here, but it sounds like awhile considering his achievements here. When we left, my mom said, "I would like to have him as a friend." A high compliment from her. If he knows how to make bunny-chow, I will most certainly cultivate his friendship! ;)

Hi hfglen, I'm sort of reading God's war by Kameron Hurley. Sort of, because it has some problems with keeping my attention... It's a bit weird, the society in the book is reminiscent of a muslim society, but they are referring to cars (or their versions of them) as bakkies, which sounds Afrikaans to me. Is it?

>215 zjakkelien: Seffican, definitely, originally Afrikaans. All becomes clear when you look at the good lady's author page and discover that she lived in Durban while doing her MA at Uni. Kwazulu-Natal. The vehicle she's thinking of is a 1/2 - 1 1/2 ton truck; in fact the Glenmobile is a double-cab bakkie with a canopy:



She'd have seen lots of Indian Muslims driving bakkies in Durban; in Cape town, equally many but of Indonesian ancestry from 'way back.

Hope that helps. Please let know if you want more info.

>216 hfglen: Interesting, thanks! Cool that you manage to tie the Afrikaans word together with the muslim background.

Yet another reason to miss my farmer back in NH. He was South African. Used to work with big game like rhinos so cows are no big deal. lol

In reading class this week, we learned about meerkats. I kept thinking of you and wondering if you have them in your area. They are very cute. I did not realize they were part of the mongoose family.

>219 catzteach: Thanks for the thought! Not around here, but in the drier areas to the west; here we have other species of mongoose (mongooses, mongeese, mongi?). Saw meerkats most recently at Mokala National Park a couple of years ago. They are, as you say, and well worth watching for hours at a stretch.

Henry: Virtuous Prince by David Starkey. A very interesting telling of the earliest days of the Tudors in England. He starts just after Bosworth Field in 1485, and ends shortly after the accession of Henry VIII. Granted history is of necessity messy, and there will always be backstory at one end and loose ends at the other. In this volume the backstory is well managed, but there are so many loose ends that another volume is very much needed. This one stops short well before any logical break. And yet, it was published 7 years ago, and I see no sign of an obvious continuation (but plenty of books that deal with later parts of the Tudor dynasty) on Starkey's LT author page. Pity; this one's very well written, and I shall certainly look out for more by this author.

Stray thought occasioned by browsing through old editions of the AA Road Atlas and Touring Guide of southern Africa and African Wild Life:

In the good-old bad-old days when I wur nobbut a nipper, trips to Rhodesia were noted for a curious phenomenon called "strip roads", evidently a way of making work for the destitute in the depression of the 1930s. At that time main roads were almost universally gravel, so anything might have been an improvement. And so with no attempt at improving the road alignment, what they did was to lay two parallel strips of tar, each 3 feet wide, 3 feet apart. The idea was that one drove on the tar, but yielded the right-hand strip to any oncoming traffic one might meet. Overtaking required the slow one to yield the right-hand strip and the faster to take up a line on that one and the dirt beyond -- not nice, considering that these roads went round trees rather than through them, and miombo bush is so thick you can't see more than a few yards through it. No finer way of making drivers seasick has yet been devised. (In fairness one must add that when and where funds permitted, the central slot was tarred over, and eventually the most important roads were rebuilt properly. )

So curious question: was this form of road ever made anywhere else? We never had them in South Africa, nor were they recorded anywhere I've seen from Mozambique or East Africa.

My husband wants to know if there was a tar strip on each side of the tree. I guess that would take care of the seasickness.

I haven't heard of tar strips, but our country road was plowed something like that in winter: one strip down the middle. That meant when meeting oncoming traffic, we would each have to venture off into the deep mess on each side of the strip, splashing slush everywhere. Four miles of terror for me!

I love these glimpses of life in other parts of the world. I never had heard of what you describe, @hfglen.

>223 nhlsecord: No, both strips went round the same side. Norma, if you only splash slush that's not so bad. The Rhodesian version had small stones, just right for shattering windscreens, on either side.

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

The Sky is falling on our Heads by Rob Penn, who spent six months being "Ned Clague", a poet, at festivals in all six Celtic nations. He says his aim was to find out what it means to be Celtic in the 21st century. Much of the answer seems to involve the consumption of vast amounts of alcohol, and sometimes other, er, non-food substances. Entertaining, but heaven forbid anyone should try to follow his example.

The next up, Love and Dr. Devon by Alan Titchmarsh, seems set to be a DNF and quite possibly the last book of 2015. I'm 72 of 272 pages in, and the story has yet to decide where it's going.

And to end on a winner! Light Across Time, evidently Tom Learmont's first novel. A tasty and aromatic blend of romance and science fiction, with hints of a huge number of conspiracy-theory tropes, and overtones of good physics and accurately drawn characters and localities. (The attempted pseudo-winespeak is in honour of one of the protagonists.) I'd say it's a must-read for Dragoneers, but the author's website tells me it's already out of print, and secondhand copies are insanely expensive. Get it from the library, if possible. I loved being able to picture to within a yard or 2 where the Johannesburg scenes happened; I grew up in that area. And the female-lead's ma lived in Harrismith, about halfway from there to where I am now (about 3 hours' drive from both); the description of the place rings true in all particulars. Tswaing used to be a favourite Tree Society outing back in the day; we called it Pretoria Salt Pan, and it wasn't surrounded by slums. The Cradle of Humankind is special too; it nearly ended any involvement between Better Half and myself -- I didn't realise just how claustrophobic she is, and in those days the cave tour involved carbide lamps, which go out at the slightest provocation (or less), and don't give any light at the best of times.

Grab it if you can!

Too bad they haven't put it out in ereader format. The copies I found at BookFinder were softcovers published in 2011, selling for about $53.00 each. Ouch!

Glad your year ended with a good book!

That's the one. Ouch indeed! And now you know why I suggested the library (not sure if this helps, but when I added it to my LT catalog, the record came from Library of Congress).

Fortunately part of the first chapter of the sequel is on his web site, suggesting that the wait may not be infinite but also that the visible bit only makes complete sense with the first one behind you.

>229 MrsLee: But if I look it up on GR, I says 'ebook format'. And then when I check out the website of the publisher (Kwela), it seems you can buy an ebook there, an epub from the looks of it. For 215 rand, I think, I don't know how much that is (looked it up, I think aroun $14). Am I allowed to put the link here?

http://www.kwela.com/Books/11947

Edit: hmm, I don't think my spoiler is really working. Weird...

Ok, I don't seem to be able to get any further then that, actually buying doesn't seem to work, but this does indicate that there is an ebook out there somewhere...

I can't find anything by Tom Learmont anywhere in the Ontario library system. :(

That's the problem with a very locally-known writer and a first novel. Durban library system has several copies (2 in Hillcrest alone). Sounds like you'll need to come and claim the spare bedroom and space on my library card!

Sure is tempting!