May News

Gavin writes:

Hello

Looks like I still had some time to do one more newsletter. I am still here, but have been preparing to leave. And it will be very, very soon. Moving to Taiwan is both very exciting and very scary. But I am looking forward to it. Seems there is never enough time to do everything.

I have been working a lot of shifts at Bedfordview and have been enjoying working in the shop again and seeing a lot of old faces. Thanks to everyone for their kind wishes and e-mails too. I apologise for not replying sooner as I have been very busy.

So in about one week I will be leaving these shores for new thrills and adventures. I will definitely miss it here but a time comes when we have to write a new chapter in our lives. I am happy to have been part of this story for the past four years. And it is time to close the book. I will never forget it.

 

Newsletter Books:

 

Gin and Tonic for the Soul

Front cover of Gin & Tonic for the SoulMadam and Eve: Gin & Tonic for the Soul by Stephen Francis, Harry Dugmore & Rico. This is the thirteenth collected volume of Madam and Eve.

Madam and Eve is a daily comic strip originating in South Africa.The strip is syndicated in 13 publications and claims a daily readership of over 4 million people. The strip was first published in July 1992, in a black and white weekly format in The Weekly Mail (now the Mail & Guardian) and in a monthly colour format in Living magazine. In 1993 the creators added five daily cartoons, also in black and white. In 2000 Madam and Eve was made into a television sitcom.

A satirical strip, it started in 1992 and was based around the theme of a middle-class white woman, Gwen Anderson, and her black maid, Eve Sisulu, coming to terms with the new South Africa as the Apartheid era drew to a close. Theirs is a relationship of affectionate squabbling. Madam's mother from England has also become a fully-fledged member of the strip.

PUBLISHED PRICE: R140.00

BOOKDEALERS PRICE: R48.00

 

Do You Know Who I Am?

In Do You Know Who I Am?, Zapiro returns with his signature wry satirical style to ensure that his audience see-saws between shaking their heads in rueful agreement and snorting in mirth.

No year would be complete without his annual collection of cartoons, which have served to become a reflective summary of political events in the year.

South Africa’s sharpest cartoonist also acts as our national conscience and once again ensures that no event passes by without comment… or a laugh.

PUBLISHED PRICE: R140.00

BOOKDEALERS PRICE: R48.00

 

A Landscape of Insects - And Other Invertebrates -

A stepping stone in the process of documenting and conserving South Africa's huge diversity of insect life, this guide provides a concise overview and descriptions of representative insect groups and their ecology in broadly different habitat types. The pictures were taken on the Diamond Route properties belonging to De Beers and the Oppenheimer family, in areas set aside for conservation and research.

Duncan MacFadyen is the manager of research and conservation for E. Oppenheimer & Son and serves on the De Beers Biodiversity and Environmental peer group committees. Shem Compion is an award-winning nature photographer whose work is published in publications such as Africa Birds and Birding, Country Living Magazine South Africa, Getaway Magazine, and Travel Africa.

PUBLISHED PRICE: R270.00

BOOKDEALERS PRICE: R98.00

 

Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks

A fascinating exploration of the contents of Agatha Christie's 73 recently discovered notebooks, including illustrations, deleted extracts, and two unpublished Poirot stories.

When Agatha Christie died in 1976, aged 85, she had become the world's most popular author. With sales of more than two billion copies worldwide in more than 100 countries, she had achieved the impossible - more than one book every year since the 1920s, every one a bestseller.

So prolific was Agatha Christie's output - 66 crime novels, 20 plays, 6 romance books under a pseudonym and over 150 short stories - it was often claimed that she had a photographic memory. Was this true? Or did she resort over those 55 years to more mundane methods of working out her ingenious crimes?

Following the death of Agatha's daughter, Rosalind, at the end of 2004, a remarkable secret was revealed. Unearthed among her affairs at the family home of Greenway were Agatha Christie's private notebooks, 73 handwritten volumes of notes, lists and drafts outlining all her plans for her many books, plays and stories. Buried in this treasure trove, all in her unmistakable handwriting, are revelations about her famous books that will fascinate anyone who has ever read or watched an Agatha Christie story.

What is the 'deleted scene' in her first book, The Mysterious Affair at Styles? How did the infamous twist in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, really come about? Which very famous Poirot novel started life as an adventure for Miss Marple? Which books were designed to have completely different endings, and what were they?

Full of details she was too modest to reveal in her own Autobiography, this remarkable new book includes a wealth of extracts and pages reproduced directly from the notebooks and her letters, plus for the first time two newly discovered complete Hercule Poirot short stories never before published.

PUBLISHED PRICE: R120.00

BOOKDEALERS PRICE: R48.00

 

21 Days in Africa: A Hunter's Safari Journal

21 Days in Africa is a real-life adventure story that recounts the author's experience of hunting wild game in Africa.

It contains helpful suggestions for planning your own African safari, with tips on rifle and bullet selection, travel insurance, clothing, and pre-safari preparations including physical fitness and filling out the numerous required forms.

"Too many people believe that Africa is all gone, particularly South Africa," writes Donarski. "It is not." And through his words and photos, he shows today's Africa, from the big city of Johannesburg to the Zulu village of Wasbank.

PUBLISHED PRICE: R300.00

BOOKDEALERS PRICE: R90.00