Leisure …
OUR AUTUMN BOOK PICKS FOR YOUR COFFEE TABLE HIDDEN KAROO BY PATRICIA KRAMER AND ALAIN PROUST The Karoo is big-sky country; a land of vast plains punctuated by flat-topped mountains, conical hills and secluded valleys, a land of scrubby bushes and hardy trees, where pioneers carved roads out of rock to set down roots in an unforgiving environment. Here dreams are born, legends are made, and outcasts find sanctuary. It is also an ancient place, whose story is revealed through geology, fossils and artefacts, and whose human lineage predates any written history. Today, the people who inhabit it must manifest the same fortitude that sustained those who left their footprints in the primaeval mud. In Hidden Karoo you will find
snapshot of the region, offering a
all this, and more. Through a
glimpse into towns and villages,
series of superb photo-essays, this
farms and churches, public
majestic place is revealed as a land
buildings and private homes,
where conservation and neglect
all against a backdrop of awe-
are seldom far apart, where one
inspiring landscapes. Through
town boasts splendidly restored
words and pictures, it prompts
buildings, while along a dusty road
us to consider what was, what
lie forgotten villages waiting for...
is and, perhaps, what might be.
something. Could it be a renewal,
One constant about the Karoo is
or a slow death? There’s nothing
change. A book can do no more
novel about the movement of
than capture a moment in time or
people from country to city, and
depict fragments of a place but,
the Karoo mimics other parts of the
in doing so, it bears witness to
world where rural areas become
the past and offers the hope that
derelict as they are depopulated.
there may yet be a future for this
Hidden Karoo presents a 36
SILVER DIGEST // AUTUMN 2021
unparalleled part of our country.
