LEISURE
BOOKS
WINTER READS Snuggle down with a good book this winter... JUST A MOMENT: A MEMOIR BY SCHALK BURGER SNR In Just a Moment, Schalk Burger Snr, one of the
PALACES OF STONE: UNCOVERING ANCIENT SOUTHERN AFRICAN KINGDOMS BY MIKE MAIN AND THOMAS HUFFMAN
greats of South African
Across the face of southern Africa
rugby, shares the many
are more than 460 remarkable
layers of his colourful
stone palaces – some small,
and eventful life. Rugby
others rambling, but many are
legend and businessman,
astonishing. All are the legacy
wine farmer, cultural
of kingdoms past. Some, such
custodian, musician, father
as Great Zimbabwe, Khami in
and grandfather, Schalk
Botswana and Mapungubwe in South Africa, are famous
Burger takes us on an intensely personal and honest
world heritage sites, but the majority are unknown to
journey through the triumphs and hardships that
the general public, unsung and unappreciated. Palaces
have shaped the life of this much-loved South African.
of Stone brings to life the history of various early African
Burger is a storyteller extraordinaire and will have you
societies, from AD 900 to approximately 1850. By
snorting into your beer as you read about run-ins with
exploring a selection of known and unknown sites, the
officialdom, fisticuffs on the field, how he became the
authors uncover the emergence of ancient civilisations
first white Springbok selected from a coloured team,
and reconstruct the meaning of the ruins they left behind.
and the day Cheeky Watson asked to wash his feet.
Woven into the narrative are stories of powerful political
This is a glimpse into the life and times of one of the
states, flourishing local economies, long-distance trade,
country’s most recognised figures, told through the
and the destruction wrought by colonialism and modern-
stories of the many lives that have intersected with his.
day treasure hunters. This book will appeal to anyone
“Who am I, and how do I live? That is something this
interested in Africa’s ancient heritage.
story will bring out of me.”
THE BOMBER MAFIA: A STORY SET IN WAR BY MALCOLM GLADWELL In the years before the Second World War, in a sleepy air force base in central Alabama, a small group of renegade pilots put forth a radical idea. What if we made bombing so accurate that wars could be fought entirely from the air? What if we could make the brutal clashes between armies on the ground a thing of the past? This book tells the story of what happened when that dream was put to the test. The Bomber Mafia follows the stories of a reclusive Dutch genius and his homemade computer, Winston Churchill’s forbidding best friend, a team of pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard, a brilliant pilot who sang vaudeville tunes to his crew, and the bomber commander, Curtis Emerson LeMay, who would order the bloodiest attack of the Second World War. In this tale of innovation and obsession, Gladwell asks: what happens when technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war? And what is the price of progress? 32
SILVER DIGEST // WINTER 2021
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