STORIES WAT EK ONTHOU

Omslagontwerp deur Stella Stofberg

 ʼn Deeglik nagevorste, onderhoudende vertelling van ʼn ryk lewe deur iemand wat in Hermanus gebore en getoë is. Die vertellings, soms komies, soms aandoenlik van die lewe soos dit was, betrek die leser by die mense van vroeër en wanneer dit nog verder in die geskiedenis delf na die herkoms van twee families, verdiep die betrokkenheid en verbreed die perspektief oor ons herkoms. Voeg daarby die plasing van die gebeure teen die agtergrond van wêreldgebeure en die geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika, word dit nog meer relevant en word dit meer as ʼn nostalgiese belewenis van die verlede.

Die verteller het wye draaie deur die land geloop en weer tuisgekom in sy hartland om hier die geskiedenis vir sy onmiddellike familie neer te pen. Dis kosbaar dat hierdie verhaal op so ʼn wyse vir die nageslag bewaar word en die kinders en kleinkinders nie eendag hoef te wonder waar hulle vandaan kom nie. Die spore lê voorwaar diep en wyd.

Elize Gerber

WHO AM I by Peter Plum

Cover design and book layout by Stella Stofberg

The author’s courage, his confidence, and his lively sense of fun are threads that run through this story of one man’s life: importantly his experience of momentous world events and how he survived them. His guts and intelligence – with some help from lady luck – averted almost certain death.

He begins his story with some ancestral history, and then describes his young life in Germany before and during the dramatic 20^th century upheavals of World War II, when he was forced to serve in the Hitler Youth and to join the army. Those experiences gave him a strong aversion to war and violence.

He goes on to relate how he came to South Africa and what it took to succeed as an industrialist in a foreign country where he spoke no English, while pursuing, with great determination, his dream of having a home and family (and a small car).

Peter Plum’s prodigious memory for detail lends authenticity and charm to his descriptions and makes fascinating reading for those interested in recent history as told by a survivor who is now in his nineties, and for anyone wanting an entertaining insight into a long life well lived.

ORDER FROM

Peter Plum

Email: peterplummail@gmail.com

Tel.: 028 314 1404

FOR KEEPS: ARTICLES ON HERMANUS HISTORY – WORTH KEEPING by Robin Lee

Cover design and book layout by Stella Stofberg

For Keeps is the result of a commitment the Hermanus History Society made to ensure that the town’s history ‘comes alive’ for the public. Written between 2013 and 2019 by Dr Robin Lee for local and national media, these 30 articles feature high and low points in Hermanus’s history over a period of 150 years: frequent and destructive fires; the sad story of an under-utilised New Harbour, the rise and fall of the hotel holiday culture and the depletion of Walker Bay’s marine resources.

Meet characters that influenced the development of Hermanus: people like P J Luyt, Meester Paterson, T D Ravenscroft, Sir William Hoy and the Grants. Read about a past era of genteel living, contrasted with the hardships of a waning fish industry; about a South African holiday town during the Second World War and visits by nobles and influential personalities.

Relive the histories of many famous hotels, shopping emporiums, restaurants, cafés and natural attractions. Follow the changes brought about by tourism throughout the twentieth century up until today when Hermanus provides an unforgettable experience for the modern visitor.

Experience the gradual metamorphosis of a nineteenth-century fishing village, Hermanuspietersfontein, into a modern, prosperous town, Hermanus, despite having no specific industry or mineral resources to sustain its growth.

Order from:

Robin Lee

Email: robinlee@hermanus.co.za

Tel: 028 312 4072

A KIND OF COUSIN by Suenel Bruwer Holloway

Cover design and book layout by Stella Stofberg

This very first anthology of short stories by Suenel Bruwer Holloway is a fresh breeze, blowing irreverently through old taboos, sweeping away the cobwebs of political correctness. With tongue-in-cheek humour Suenel captures the spirit of the people of our wonderful, sad and broken country; also the essence of humankind everywhere.

There is the sadness of an old lady in “The Statistic”, who is cunningly stashing away morphine and sleeping tablets for an “assisted departure”, fooling the nursing staff of the retirement centre; there is the infallible logic of a child in the title story, “A Kind of Cousin” and a startling different view of prostitution in “The Healer”.  Enjoy “The Right Therapist” where the author pokes fun at “shrinks” and psychoanalysts.

“Horseflesh” is an ode to the donkey: Old Langoor who should have been called Lionheart, refusing to be broken by abuse and starvation.

Fasten your seatbelt; be ready to be carried away by topics usually swaddled in cotton wool: farm murders, religious obsession, the Afrikaner’s ties to the land, old age and dying.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Suenel Bruwer Holloway lives in the small village, McGregor, near Robertson in the Western Cape. She has published several dramas, poems and individual short stories, and some of her children’s verse have been put to music. Some of her plays have been turned into musicals. She is also involved in the poetry festival which is hosted at McGregor each year.

A Kind of Cousin is her first single author short story anthology.

Anthology of Short Stories

Paperback / / 148mm x 210mm / 194 pages

This book should appeal to:

• Readers that don’t buy into received truth
• Travelers that dip in and out of a book
• Fiction fans with limited time wanting substance
• Wide ranging topics - satirical, sinister and funny

A KIND OF COUSIN by Suenel Bruwer Holloway is available in (or can be ordered at) all major bookstores just quote the title, author and the following ISBN-number:

ISBN: 978-1-928283-36-2

SURVIVING THE FAMILY by Gill Marais

Cover design and book layout by Stella Stofberg

Gill Marais had an idyllic and privileged pre-war childhood in South Africa, land of her Huguenot ancestors, before moving to Europe and living the bohemian art-student dream in London. After a troubled first marriage, with a revived lust for life she returned to Europe and swinging London, married a titled Frenchman and became a diplomat’s wife in Cold War Europe and Washington, USA, at key turning points in the sixties and seventies. After her second divorce she took up photojournalism and the search for spiritual enlightenment in the mountains of Ladakh. Much of this world has now disappeared, literally and figuratively, in the political and social upheavals of the last fifty years.

Surviving the Family combines letters (seldom with politically correct comments) and describes encounters with the rich and famous, from those in the corridors of power, to royalty, the Pope and Dalí. Throughout the book runs the thread of coming to terms with her unusual parental relationships and the acceptance that you cannot force a loving bond.

Memoir / World Affairs / Travel

Paperback: 240mm x 165mm

462 pages, 82 b/w photos

Readers who will find this book fascinating:

• Non-fiction readers who are interested in public figures and Society in the years of Change in America and Europe
• Travel enthusiasts
• History buffs, particularly world events

SURVIVING THE FAMILY by Gill Marais is available in (or can be ordered at) all major bookstores just quote the title, author and the following ISBN-number:

ISBN: 978-1-928283-29-4