Karoo Tales and Images

ISBN number: 978-0-620-40583-6
Publisher: Springbok Press (www.springbokpress.co.za)
Author: Nicholas Yell

Genre: SA Fiction - short stories (13) with B&W photographs.

About the book

Short stories were Nicholas Yell’s way of recording his impressions of the quirky characters he met when he first moved to the Karoo. While living in Aberdeen in a lovingly restored ‘platdak Karoo-huis’, he drove thousands of kilometres of dirt tracks, always in search of a story and characters which he could later weave into his fictionalized accounts. But many of his trademark ‘twist in the tale’ stories reflect only the vaguest of truths and rely solely on his own off-beat imagination to entertain the reader.

"People-watching in the Karoo is a fascinating business," says Yell. "Not only those whose hand-to-mouth existence makes for poignant observations, but also the other embattled city souls and so-called 'free-spirits' that go there to try and find, or, more often, lose themselves."

Veteran journalist and author, Harvey Tyson, said of the book: "When I first read some of Nick’s short stories they reminded me a bit of O.Henry’s writings of the late 1800s. But Nick has his own subtle style and his stories are usually laden with unique layers of innuendo and meaning which are often revealed only when you reach the ending."

Containing 13 highly entertaining short stories – including one titled Christmas in the Karoo – as well as evocative black and white photographs, this short anthology is sure to delight the fast-growing group of Karoo aficionados.

Blood on the path

ISBN number: 978-0-620-43161-3
Publisher: Springbok Press - March 2009
Author: Harvey Tyson

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About the book

This is the sweeping, adventurous saga of all the people of the African sub-continent who, 100 years ago, became the first South Africans. It is an exciting and fast-moving historic account in novel form, and although it is packed with arresting and accessible facts, the story eschews long lists of dates and reams of text concerning treks, frontier wars and the racial struggles of the period.

Instead, Tyson chooses to portray the fears, prejudices and motives seen through the contemporaneous eyes of a cast of “ordinary” people. Their lives intersect cleverly with many of the famous figures of the era; people such as J. X. Merriman, Sol Plaatje and Cecil Rhodes, and so the history of the era is unveiled – with total dedication to the facts - in a highly readable format.

Tyson believes that we can best understand history if we are standing in the shoes of those who lived it. To understand their worlds we need to listen for the thump of thousands of spears on shields before the fighting; the stamp of foot while dancing; the rustle of skirts while courting. We also need to smell the pre-battle fear and see the blood.

Simply a must-read for all those interested in the roots of modern-day South Africa.

Circling the Great Karoo

ISBN number: 978-0-620-45351-6
Publisher: Springbok Press
Author: Nicholas Yell

About the new edition.

Following on the success of the previous edition, this re-edited, updated and revitalized version, chronicling Nicholas Yell’s epic journey through the Karoo on an old scrambler, is a must-read for the historically-inclined adventure traveller.

The new edition has been totally redesigned and features three additional Karoo based adventure-motor biking articles – with colour photographs - adding an additional 30 pages of new content to the previous book. An improved map, showing actual distances covered during the author’s circumnavigation, is also a feature of the new book.

Since its launch in September 2008, Circling the Great Karoo has sold steadily and has received favourable critical acclaim from many varied sources.

About the book

There is a sense of great exhilaration when you set off on a long motorbike journey - alone. Especially when it entails riding the Great Karoo's minor dirt roads seldom visited by anybody other than the diehards who farm there, and who manage to co-exist with one of the harshest environments and climates on the planet.

But this is not just any journey through the Karoo; it is a journey that aslo delves into both its recent and ancient evolutionary past. The result: a historical treasure-trove filled with stories about South Africa's earliest and more recent inhabitants, European explorers' and outlaws' trails, accounts of the Anglo-Boer War battles that pop up along the way and revelations about the mammal-like reptiles and first true dinosaur fossils that are uncovered during the journey.

While well documented in many different reference books, the many fascinating historical gems and interesting geological phenomena of the Great Karoo are not readily accessible to the lay reader in a single, armchair travel format, and this is certainly one of the book's main advantages.

For the writer, motorbike travel is his muse, his solace and his teacher. It allows his soul often to ride pillion - exalting in the sheer wonderment of being allowed its own time and space to be revel in. And to be - just to be.

Laugh The Beloved Country

ISBN number: 978-1-919-930-32-9
Publisher: Double Story Books - 2003
Co-Compiled by: Harvey Tyson & James Clarke

About the book

Here in one volume is a distillation and compendium of South African humour, written in English over the last 200 years - from bitter satire to wild farce, from sharp wit to gentle humour. The compilers have tried to display the full range and variety in this book: the elegant good humour of Gordon Forbes, the sad ironies of Nat Nakasa, the sparkling mirrors held up to an anxious society by Gus Silber, the wit of Christopher Hope.

The overall result is less an anthology than an anatomy of a society rich in funny moments and human folly, rich too in experiences that cry out to be laughed at. As Archbishop Tutu says, "Thank God for satirists, cartoonists and humourists of all shapes and sizes, of all races, ages and genders ... such as are presented in this collection, for keeping us sane and human."

A compendium of South African Humour including work by:
Hermanus Charles Bosman
Darrel Bristow-Bovey
David Bullard
Christopher Hope
Madam & Eve
Nat Nakasa
Jo-Anne Richards
Gus Silber
Marianne Thamm
Pieter-Dirk Uys
Iris Vaughan
Zapiro

Birders of a feather

ISBN number: 0-620-23167-X
Publisher: Editors Inc - 1998
Edited By: Harvey Tyson

About the book

A score of well known South Africans take you on a journey that shows you ways to increase your interests and enhance your life.

They show you how their hobby - their passion - can be experienced inside your garden gate, or in the furthest corners of the earth. They show you why the exploding sport of birdwatching puts you back in constant touch with nature, and with every interest involving the unspoilt outdoors. They show you how, through your awareness of birds - and by simply having fun - you can help protect your environment.

This great read is a companion book to Have Wings, Will Fly. The two books are published to help save habitats by creating jobs.

Have wings will fly

ISBN number: 0-620-22862-8
Publisher: Editors Inc - 1998
Author: Harvey Tyson

About the book

You'll never look at birds the same way again after this book.

Even if you know nothing of birds and care little for all those "fashionable environmental issues", this book is for you. It will make you more aware of the vibrant life around you, it will make your spirit want to fly.

Harvey Tyson's message is stark, but it is delivered with immense charm and persuasion in a pacey narrative. It is about a fascinating cross-section of people whose lives are touched by birds - people who watch, paint, shoot, protect and eat them. But above all it is a book which captures the elements that link people of the earth to people of the concrete jungles - the hunter-gatherers and the chartered accountants.

His descriptions of the African sub-continent and its surrounds are vivid with his love of this region of wild seas, isolated islands, snow capped peaks, trackless deserts, enigmatic plains, seductive swamps, and whispering forests...

You'll not only know more about birds when you've finished this book; you'll also know how much you don't know about southern Africa.