The entire sequence of Bosman’s famous Oom Schalk Lourens stories, in one volume for the first time. Edited from authoritative sources, and accompanied by original illustrations, this gathering represents a feast of South Africa’s best-loved tales. The sixty pieces include all-time favourites like “In the Withaak’s Shade”, “Makapan’s Caves” and “Willem Prinsloo’s Peach Brandy”, the Boer War classics “Mafeking Road” and “The Rooinek”, as well as several lesser-known treasures.
“Bosman’s Oom Schalk Lourens is a literary creation without equal in South African literature. Precedents there are aplenty, to be sure . . ., but no storyteller figure looms as large in the popular imagination as Oom Schalk. His famous boast, “… I can tell the best stories of anybody in the Transvaal . . .” (“Mafeking Road”, 1935), has gone unchallenged for the seventy years since it was first uttered.” – Craig MacKenzie
