Ron McGregor is a South African tour-guide and writer. This book - now in it's 4th edition - was written in response to popular demand for a book about South Africa that isn't too weighty or academic. Until recently, there was no such single book, so Ron sat down and wrote it. And, because it was written to entertain as much as to educate, he stuck to his raconteurial style. It's an easy read, but not a shallow one.Maps and diagrams to accompany the text were produced by graphic-des...

Which way should he go now?Nick Turnbull's marriage has gone decidedly stale. To aggravate the situation, he has recently retired and has too much time on his hands.A diversion presents itself in the form of an old grandfather clock. Nick starts digging into its history.The story is told in both the past and the present, as we follow the journey of the clock from the country lanes of England to the deserts of South West Africa, and finally to Nick's home in Cape Town. ...

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep is the life experiences of Ron McGregor. Born the youngest of six children by immigrants from North Dakota, USA, settlers carving out an existence in Canada's flatland called Saskatchewan. This is a biographical account of ups and downs created throughout the booms and busts of the oil patch. As the ups and downs of the oil patch occurred so did the ups and downs of Ron's bipolar condition making life difficult for those close to him. A story of a man trying to a...

James A. Michener’s masterly chronicle of South Africa is an epic tale of adventurers, scoundrels, and ministers, the best and worst of two continents who carve an empire out of a vast wilderness. From the Java-born Van Doorn family tree springs two great branches: one nurtures lush vineyards, the other settles the interior to become the first Trekboers and Afrikaners. The Nxumalos, inhabitants of a peaceful village unchanged for centuries, unite warrior tribes into the powerful Zulu natio...

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.With the passing of Nelson Mandela, ‘the father of the nation’, comes the end of an era, and the moment to look back on his remarkable saving, and remaking, of South Africa. After years of oppression and racial inequality, concentrated violence and apartheid, Mandela led the country to unite ‘for the freedom of us all’ as the country’s first black President.SOUTH AFRICA: HISTORY IN AN HOUR gives a lively account of the f...

By tracing the long and turbulent history of the Zulus from their arrival in South Africa and the establishment of Zululand, The Zulus at War is an important and readable addition to this popular subject area. It describes the violent rise of King Shaka and his colorful successors under whose leadership the warrior nation built a fearsome fighting reputation without equal among the native tribes of South Africa. It also examines the tactics and weapons employed during the numerous...

The Anglo-Boer Wars will introduce you to, one of the Victorian Wars of the British Empire. A bite size comprehensive account of the two Anglo-Boer Wars fought between 1880-1881 and 1899-1902. A fascinating tale of one of the bloodiest and expensive wars for over a century, which pitted the two Boer Republics of South Africa (Orange Free State and The Transvaal) against the might of the British Empire and her dominions. Five hundred thousand British and Commonwealth troops from many countr...

Famine may be triggered by nature but its outcome arises from politics and ideology. In Three Famines, award-winning author Thomas Keneally uncovers the troubling truth -- that sustained widespread hunger is historically the outcome of government neglect and individual venality. Through the lens of three of the most disastrous famines in modern history -- the potato famine in Ireland, the famine in Bengal in 1943, and the string of famines that plagued Ethiopia in the 1970s and 19...

A broad, concise and inclusive vision of Australia and Australians by one our most renowned historians.After a lifetime of research and debate on Australian and international history, Geoffrey Blainey is well-placed to introduce us to the people who have played a part and to guide us through the events that have created the Australian identity: the mania for spectator sport; the suspicion of the tall poppy; the rivalries of Catholic and Protestant, Sydney and Melbo...

"South Africa's tragic apartheid history is vividly recounted . . . [Lapierre] is adept at infusing it with drama aplenty." — Los Angeles TimesIn 1652 a small group of Dutch farmers landed on the southernmost tip of Africa. Sent by the powerful Dutch India Company, their mission was simply to grow vegetables and supply ships rounding the cape. The colonists, however, were convinced by their strict Calvinist faith that they were among God's...

Commerce meets conquest in this swashbuckling story of the six merchant-adventurers who built the modern world, as told by Canada’s Simon Winchester” (Globe and Mail).Through the Age of Heroic Commerce, from the 17th to the 19th centuries, a rogue’s gallery of larger-than-life merchant kings ruled vast tracts of the globe and expanded their far-flung monopolies to generate revenue for their shareholders, feather their own nests and satisfy their vanity and curiosity. Their exploit...

Southern Africa was once regarded as a worthless jumble of British colonies, Boer republics, and African chiefdoms, a troublesome region of little interest to the outside world. But then prospectors chanced upon the world's richest deposits of diamonds and gold, setting off a titanic struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the land. The result was the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and the devastation of the Boer...