bookbedonnerd october 2014 newsletter post festival cool down

8/10/2019 Bookbedonnerd October 2014 Newsletter Post Festival Cool Down

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Dont Frack With Our Karoo

Booktown Richmonds 9 th Anniversary

A Richmond Community Development Foundation Project

BookBedonnerd 2014 Report back

I know this is becoming a bit of a clich but really, it was our best festival to date. The glowing praisewe received all round was phenomenal. People who just happened to be driving through said theywould stay for a session to see what the fuss was all about and ended up staying the entire 3 days.Numbers in the streets did seem to be somewhat down, but then again I think that lots of folks were just happy to stoep sit and enjoy the pleasantries of the day. Booktown Richmond Headquarters werehowever consistently full.

It was as always a pleasure to meet up with many of our long standing and unfailing supporters over theyearsthe Vermaaks, Siertsemas, Honiballs, van der Westhuizens, Oliviers, Menaches, Luscombes,Jacksons, Ackermans, Welhams and Borries. . and all the others now becoming too numerous tomention. We greatly appreciate your continued support and interest in Booktown Richmond.


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What people most liked about the festival, I believe was the camaraderie writers said they had neverexperienced anything like it. Much of the credit must go to you the writers. But to Peter Baker as well.Always with a glass of wine in hand or a bottle of beer with his wife Beth not far behind telling him tomake himself useful in the restaurant the Supper Klub must be the most literary restaurant / pub inSA. And here we must really mention in more than passing the young chefs from Capsicum Chef Schoolin Centurion, who have become an integral part of Booktown Richmond. Apparently there is a battleroyal for the honour to come to cook for the mad readers and writers who make the trek to Richmond inMay a nd October. From BTRs perspective we would be a pale shadow without them.so we heartilythank Chef Jovan, his young charges and Deon Roets from Capsicum for their support.

In keeping with the theme of camaraderie- up the road comes Jan van der Merwe in a bakkie full ofbooks; he is the author of Free State Dorps , and he has boxes of beautiful books from the wife of famousphotographer Paul Alberts, which he says he wants to give for free to the writers at BookBedonnerd.Totally unplanned; unrehearsed, but totally in the spirit of Booktown Richmond! But what a book toreceive as a present, it was Paul Alberts wifes wish that the books must be given to people who wouldappreciate her husbands work. And I can assure her they will enjoy pride of place on at least 50bibliophiles bookshelves. So we all are very thankful for Jan for thinking of us.

SOUTH AFRICAN INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS AWARD

Booktown Richmond is proud to announce another first - awards that recognize excellence in theburgeoning field of self -published books in SA. In Booktown Richmond, we pride ourselves on finding thebest self -published books to invite to BookBedonnerd, our literary festival held every October. Thus when

I met writers such as Grant Leversha, author of Within an African Eden, which I consider to be the greatest book I have ever seen as far as craftsmanship is concerned and Maritza Breytenbach, author ofThe Cookie Book, both of whom have won in overseas competitions for best self -published book, Irealized it was time to launch such an award in SA.

But it took another surprise visit from Grant Leversha at this years BookBedonnerd, and the commentsof another participant Dawn Garisch, who praised us for the amount of self -published books at this

years festival, to m otivate me to "just do it"

It therefore gives me great pleasure to call upon all self -published authors to enter their books in theinaugural 2015 SOUTH AF RICAN I NDEPENDENT PUBLI SHE RS AWARD . Closing dates for allentries is the 28 February 2015. Like with all the overseas awards for self -published books, there will beno prize money.

These awards are meant to be about recognition.

And with recognition comes, hopefully more sales. However I would like to assure all finalists- thecommissioned sculptures you will receive will enjoy pride of place on your mantelpiece.


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For the inaugural prize, books published in the years 2010-2014 will be considered in the followingcategories. (From 2016, only books published in the preceding year will be eligible for consideration.)

1) Biography/ Autobiography2) Fiction3) Fine Art4) Photography/ Coffee Table Books5) Architecture

6) Short Stories7) Childrens Literature 8) Animals/Pets9) Cookbooks10) Environment11) Health/ Medicine12) Humour/ Cartoon13) History14) Home + Garden15) Poetry16) Travel17) Best Independent Book/Author/Publisher Website

18) Award Winning Independent BookstoreThe Prize Giving Ceremony will be held at the JM Coetzee/Athol Fugard Festival which we host in thelast full weekend of May 2015 in Booktown Richmond. All shortlisted authors will be invited to the

festival. Judges will be announced at the end of January 2015. For further enquiries, and for details on how to enterkindly contact Darryl David - [email protected] or 0825764489

Peter Baker - [email protected] or 011- 4472517

Forever BookBedonnerd Darryl + Peter

And Roger Webster ..what a character! When he left too early because his wife had to fly out fromBloemfontein hours after he had spoken, he dropped off a box books for us to sell, the proceeds to helpkeep BTR on an even keel. We are very grateful Roger. Well I dont know about Peter but I certainly didnot collect a cent for those books but they were all gone the last time I looked longingly behind mewhen I closed the door on BookBedonnerd 2014. But we are happy that they will be on the bookshelvesof book lovers. As if that wasnt good enough, he then dedicated his By the Fireside show to BooktownRichmond the next day. We dont pay people to do these kinds of things. I think it is because they realizethey are in the midst of something special.

Dominique Botha sadly could not spend a lot of time with us, but we must have made an impression onher in the short time she was with us as she has agreed to bring one of the greatest South Africanwriters to Booktown Richmond in 2015. We have had to change our dates somewhat for 2015 toaccommodate this writer. Instead of the last full weekend in the month we are holding BookBedonnerdsVIII on the 29-31 October. So an advanced warning is to pick up the phone and make your booking for

next year. Theres big, and theres Big!! My advice to you is book in Hanover; Victoria West or evenGraaff- Reinet. But you will have to wait till 2015 before I reveal the identity of the speaker. So a very bigBoekBedonnerd thanks to Dominique. As I told Dominique, I will literally kiss her toes at theHeadquarters in 2015. Get your cameras out for that one.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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But back to the festival proper, Tuan Marais, with his book Painted Devils and the Land of Ordinary Men kicked off proceedings. I immediately fell in love with Tuans mother whom he said told him: promiseme you will never buy a Merc! (Only a R1 000 000 sponsorship for the Booktown from Mercedes Benzwill persuade me otherwise). But Tuan regaled us with stories of his childhood in Tanganyika andZanzibar and with an eccentric mother. And by the time he got to read from his book, I understood whyMarguerite Poland and Christopher Hope had spoken so highly of this book. Eloquent prose is theadjective that best describes Tuans writing style.

By now, the SABC crew were readying themselves for Nico Moolman, author of The Boer Whore . I mean,I sprayed extra deodorant, I made sure my shoes were polished and that my hair was combed. But no,they only had eyes for this extraordinary author whom I first heard about at the greatest farm stall inthe Karoo Karoobos Farm stall in Hofmeyr. It was a book that was first launched in BooktownRichmond Nico told the audience. And Peter and I beamed with pride like first time fathers. But itgrabbed the public imagination because of the Afrikaans novel Kamphoer by Francois Smith which wasbased o n Nicos The Boer Whore. Such are die kronkelpaaie of books. But by the time this journeyends, I think Francois will bag a literary award or two, and Nico will see his labour of love on the silverscreen. I hope this comes to fruition, because this gentle giant of a man has a heart of gold.

Next up was Matilda Burden. Wow!!! Who knew that furniture could be so interesting? Why didnt Ihave lecturers like this when I was young? This was truly a stunning book. It really is a tome! It iswonderful to meet people who are so knowledgeable and passionate about furniture. To see the worldwith new eyes is what many claim is the function of literature. Matilda proved this with a book that


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belongs on many a bookshelf. And a 1000 thank yous to Matildas so n who helped us out with histechnological finesse throughout their stay.

The talk by Wally Peters on the Architectural Heritage of Richmond and Hanover was special. Especiallyif you are an admirer of Karoo towns. But this was a talk that helped the uninitiated to truly understandthe layout of Karoo towns and the different architectural styles - simplicity personified. And the slides onthe fanlights we will look more closely at Karoo architecture after this talk, thats for sure.

After lunch, Di Smith from my home town of Pietermaritzburg spoke movingly about her book, Youre

Awesome. Di is the founder of an organization called Awesome SA that celebrates the role of ordinarySouth Africans trying to make a change in this country, and this theme shines through in her book.Stunning photographs by photographer Terrence Mtola make this, in my opinion, an inspirational book.Hope to see you next year Di. With your special Grahamstown cargo Just in case you forgot!


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Peter Cleary this is what Booktown is all about the sheer joy of discovering a good writer you hadnever met before. Peter is living proof that there is a book (or four!) within each one of us. No literarybackground, a businessman, who like me got tired of writing out cheques and tried his hand out atnovels. Peter Cleary is living proof that it can be done. I have already invited him to my Midlands LiteraryFestival because I believe his next book will hit the sweet spot.

The Banana Boys are in town .in Mtunzini formalattire!

Jan van der Merwe an imposing man. A man whofeels no shame to point a camera right up your facefor this is a man on a mission. First Free State Dorps ;undoubtedly the heaviest book I have had to lift up,but worth every strained muscle. I learnt so muchfrom this book. For a person like me who lovesarchitecture and literary history, this was pure


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manna from heaven. And you should know that I never invite writers to two consecutiveBookBedonnerds, but Jans next book is going to be a winner. And rules are meant to be broken. Seeyou in 2015 Jan. And thanks once more for donating those wonderful books by Paul Alberts to writers atBookBedonnerd.

We ended the day on a somber note. Kate Baxter, wife ofEdwin Jackson, who passed away a few months earlier,paid tribute to a great supporter of Booktown Richmond.As she read from Flight of the Moth , Edwins travelogueabout his journeys after discovering he had a terminalillness, I could not help but fondly remember the mostsurreal moment in the history of Booktown Richmond _when Edwin, hands shaking so badly that he could notread, asked his blind editor/poet/singer Jacques Coetzeeto continue with the reading. I hope that Kate will see toit that Edwins next book will be published posthumously.

The next morning started with one of the books of BookBedonnerd 2014 Dennis Walters and his bookon Old Bridges of the Eastern Cape . Boy, what a talk. Youve heard the phrase wax lyrically. Well Dennistook this phrase to new levels. I had to physically man handle him off the stage . Even though he claimshe uses that walking-stick-like contraption to point to images on the PowerPoint, something tells me heuses it to intimidate people into letting him speak for more than his allotted time. But it was a pleasureto have Dennis in Richmond he personifies the kind of spirit that has made BookBedonnerd what it is a must do item on the bucket list of those brave enough to call themselves authors.

Elmer Fudd! Right o ff the top shelf


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Derick van der Walt was next. Derick is a famous man, being the author of the critically acclaimed Lien selangstaanskoene. He also has the persona of a writer one of those chain-smoking types . But today,he was in Richmond to talk about his book Hoopvol a book ostensibly set in Richmond. Yes, Richmondformed the blueprint for this novel. Although like all good novelists, he borrows liberally from thefeatures of other Karoo towns. I can safely say that this is a great book because my Department ofAfrikaans at UKZN is one of the few departments that prescribe this book in our course on ChildrensLiterature. But before this brings out another bout of chain smoking from Derick, let me say that hisbooks can be enjoyed by both adults and teenagers alike.

Clinton V. du Plessis. What a performance! What poetry. One of the finest we have had to privilege tolisten to in the history of Booktown Richmond. What a transformation this man has undergone since Ifirst met him in Cradock. It tells you something about the caliber of his poetry when I tell you Clintonsold the most books at BookBedonnerd 2014. I will never forget an old man, with tears rolling down hischeeks and snot hanging from his nose buying a book from Clinton. That my dear friends, is the power ofwords. Long may it continue Clinton Afrikaans would be much poorer without your passionate voice.

After tea, Mike Lowry had us all enchanted with his Memoirs of a Vet , which best sums up the thrust ofhis talk. I am sure it got the ink flowing in Peter Bakers veins and hopefully Peter will feature on ourprogramme sooner rather than later. But Mike made us realize how special animals are especially thelarge animals like elephant, lion, and crocodile. Mike really had us spellbound for 30 minutes and I gota fright when I realized I had not been watching the clock such was th e quality of Mikes talk. And onceagain, I will break my own rule and invite Mike in 2015 again because he has, I believe, a book that willtake SA by storm next year.


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Vet to vet like a tte tte .sort of

Next up was Warren Siebrits, a man that Peter had fortuitously met at his veterinary practice in Jo burg.When Peter told me about Warren, I immediately knew the gods had smiled upon Booktown Richmond.And by the time Warren had finished his talk on Walter Battiss, I knew that we had heard one of thegreatest talks delivered at Booktown Richmond probably the talk of BookBedonnerd 2014. Wow, whata knowledgeable man Warren is. No pages to refer to from the heart expertise garnered from alifetime of researching Battiss. By the time Warren had finished, I was more impressed with him thanWalter Battiss. Thank you Warren. For half an hour, you took us on a journey we will never forget.

A man with a mission and on a march.what an interesting talk!

Next up was Elizabeth van Heyningen with a subject that is close to my heart Olive Schreiner. Elizabethhad been invited to talk about the Letters of Olive Schreiner, published by the Van Riebeeck Society,dealing primarily with her Hanover years. By the time everyone sauntered off, lead by their noses to thelunch on offer by the townspeople, I am sure everyone had a newfound appreciation for Olive Schreiner,a woman who was ahead of her time, and deep admiration for Elizabeth who spoke so passionately onthe topic.


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One of the greatest appeals of Booktown Richmond to our visitors is the stoep sitting and slow strolls up

and down Loop Street visiting the Galleries, book shops and restaurants. This is where the real heart ofthe event lies. Over cappuccinos, beers and wine the matters of the universe were solved and newfriendships made and old ones cemented.


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After lunch Joanne Hichens spoke eloquently about her baby Short Sharp Stories a collaborationwith the Grahamstown Arts Festival where the countrys top emerging talent get incl uded in an

anthology of short stories on a chosen topic. Joanne was wonderful over the weekend. She could beseen with children of the town, be it over their karretjie race or at the Elvis Presley concert. And let menot get started about the dinners...

Same girldifferent day


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Everybody loves a street party!


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Next was Meg Vandermerwe, a lady with a most Afrikaans surname and THE most English accent. Nowto me, Meg always seems to be under pressure. I saw her poke her head in a few minutes before hersession on her book Zebra Crossing , looking decidedly flustered. By the time her talk was about to start,there was no sign of her! Someone said they spotted her at the bar. Apparently she did not know shehad to speak on her book, thinking it was an interview format. Whatever the case, she gave a great talk,even better than at the academic conference where I first met her, and I know why :) . all great writershave at some stage in their lives looked to that most noble of fruit, the grape, for a bit of inspiration.Good on you, Meg!!!


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Integral to Booktown Richmond and both the JMCoetzee / Athol Fugard and BookBedonnerd festivalsare the art works on exhibition organized and orchestrated by Harrie Siertsema and MAP Gallery. AsBooktown has gr own so has the art wing of the weekends festivities. Harry had a wonderful line up ofexhibits by the likes of Andrew Munnik, Willem Boshoff, Francois du Plessis, Pitika Ntuli, Maja Marx,Seretsi Moletsane, and a GREAT intervention by Guy du Toit. All of the exhibits were around the

theme of books and words and if you were in the dorp for BookBedonnerd I only can say that if youdidnt take a stroll into the several galleries, you really missed something special. I have a few pix of thematerial on show .great imagination and creativity all on show in the Karoo!

Scrunched Books


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We ended the day with a couple of treats. Mark Borrie of Hawksmoor winery in Paarl put on a winetasting to accompany a screening of his documentary filum The Farm Workers of Matjieskuil, and what alovely filum it was, highlighting the plight of all grape farm workers in the Cape. The accompanyingsplendid wines were the cherry on the top.

Whilst on the other side of the roadthe maestro was at the keyboard..


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Dom. Attie van Wyk wait till he turns around the best looking organist in all of the Karoo!!!

But in a day with so many highlights, you could be forgiven for thinking we had an early night. But Elvishad rock ed up to liven things up a bitand certain ly did brighten the lives of the children of Richmond.Someone told us we made a big mistake to get James Marais, one of the country's top Elvisimpersonators. They said the kids didnt have a clue who Elvis was and we'd be lucky to get 20 kids tothe concert. I seem to recall the same things being said of prepubescent Booktown Richmond.

Well did the town rock n roll and what a great evening? Elvis, just back from a tour of the US was asuperb performer and his wife to be, Monique Cassels was just about on a par with Bonnie Raitt.andthat is really up there!


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The kids and Mrs. Elvis in full swing


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But what a joy it was to see the children of Richmond. What natural rhythm. No, this was our finestmoment yet. And Peter knew it only too well. You should have seen the old timer rocking to Elvis. Thechildren were rolling over with laughter in the aisles.


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And when the concert started, those who were there witnessed something special. And as a grande final when it ended, one would have thought the kids would have gone home. Instead they waited forRichmond's very own Afrika -Burn event as MAP Gallery artists set alight a sculpture of a Riverine Rabbit.It was a great way to end one of the greatest nights in the history of Booktown Richmond.

I woke up on the last day, feeling surprisingly refreshed. Thankfully Louis Esterhuizen was visible earlyon. You always worry that the first speaker of the day will be sleeping in, in the clean Karoo air. But a bigthanks to Louis who could only join us for the session because a family member was ill and he had toreturn soon after. But not before he had us captivated with his poetry. This was not easy poetry by anystretch of the imagination - made more difficult by the length of the reading. But if you were awake at9am on this Saturday, you would have felt like me - poets are special people. And even if you wereslightly drowsy, you would have to agree that very few people can make Zulu sound like French the wayLouis can.


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Next up was Leslie Howard, speaking on her book Barrydale Unplugged . Isn't Barrydale a most beautifultown? And the front cover of the book did it justice. A more beautiful cover you will struggle to find. I

could sense Leslie is a person who is motivated by the lyrical beauty of landscapes. Richmond must havemoved her too. Read her poem she penned soon after BookBedonnerd. I only wish that she had

presented a PowerPoint slide show of some of the sights in the dorp.

After the Richmond Bookfest

Cleaving vast Karoo plainsThe dusty road, like a runway, threaded to infinity.

Celestial clouds in tattersCurtained the sky and farflung hills,

The faint gap between earth and heavenOn the vast horizon

Disturbingly mottled brownIn the light of the sinking sunLike the cliffs of a forgotten land

The earth a deep metallic grey,A menacing sea

The whole deceiving eye and brain.


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The illusion gripped me soThat another showed God astride a mountain,

His arm stretching earthwardsFrom this Sistine Chapel in the Karoo,His great grey locks streaming behind.

Then a small squat rainbow suddenly appeared Hopeful, comforting, after my strange imaginings,

Like the many voices at the BookfestBringing hope, a common thread after all,

In this troubled, doleful land.

Leslie Howard

Dominique Botha came to Richmond with the reputation that Valsrivier might have been the book of the

year as far as Afrikaans fiction is concerned. What a beautiful book this is; such immense skill inportraying the different voices at different stages of their lives. How beautiful the imagery of water inthe book. And never before have I heard someone swear so beautifully in a book I rate Dominique. Ialways say Etienne van Heerden has an 8 speed gearbox in that brain of his. So effortlessly can he steeran interviewer in the direction he wants. Dominique has that gift. A joy to interview

After grabbing a boerrie roll, a couple choppies and a melktertas well as a koeksister or two, I was ingreat shape for Roger Webster. In fact everyone was looking forward to Roger to close BookBedonnerd2014, but as he had to catch a plane in Bloemfontein directly after his talk we had to play some musicalchairs. Well let me say he is the master storyteller: effortless. He had us wrapped around those fingersof his and in the short space of 30 minutes I wrote down 6 ideas for great stories from his anecdotes.Roger is really spellbinding. He would have been the ticket to close BookBedonnerd but it was not to be.


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Next up was Christo Brand, one of the warders of Nelson Mandela. In the tradition of BooktownRichmond, Christo broke down as he told us about his years with Mandela. I am sure he has told this

story so many times before, but like Diana Ferrus the previous year, Christo had us all reaching for ourhandkerchiefs. In some mysterious way it allowed each one of us to say that we honestly had met withand knew Nelson personally. Undoubtedly one of the talks of 2014, and a book and a man I will neverforget.

Jonty Driver drove us gently into lunch. What a giant of a man this was. If he was my principal I wouldhave peed in my pants at the sight of this man. And a man with a way with words. His reading style wasprobably the best at BookBedonnerd 2014. And by the time he got to his poem on Breyten Breytenbach,and he articulated the words: Oh Breyten Breytenbach , the hairs on my arms saluted a poetic voice I

had been privileged to hear.


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Dawn Garisch - I was worried about Dawn Garisch when I first met her. She had that "what have I gottenmyself into" expression when I first met her. But I could tell the festival grew on her. Dawn's voice is alone voice in the wilderness - a doctor by profession who happens to be a writer, and a very good one atthat. Whilst what Dawn asked us to do during her talk may have been too difficult for some (yours trulyincluded ) - Dawn is nonetheless a champion of what is referred to as the medical humanities. Shechallenges us to break down the dichotomies that are our Cartesian inheritance and to let the bodyspeak.

I had the unenviable task of closing what had been a most memorable festival.in extra quick time10minutes, because the shouts of Prooovince could be already heard from the bar. Thank the Pope therewerent that many ardent P rovince supporters in town so we didnt have to e ndure much heckling whenthe Lions found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard 2 hours later.

But we were not done. We closed off with an Elvis Presley concert. Let me say that James Marais canshake, rattle and roll. People thought I was mad when I got "Elvis" for Richmond. But they did not knowwhat I knew: Elvis is timeless. Elvis was the King and still is.


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Thats it folks. Another festival, another year. To all our writers, and the many supporters of BooktownRichmond, we wish each and every one of you a truly blessed and happy Christmas and a healthy, happyNew Year in 2015. We look forward to meeting many of you once more at our inaugural South AfricanIndependent Publishers Award in May, which we are quietly confident will take the literary world bystorm in 2015.

Forever BookBedonnerd

Darryl & Peter


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bookbedonnerd october 2014 newsletter post festival cool down

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