While both Best of Getaway Gallery and Welgevonden are nature photography books, I would recommend each to its own distinct audience: the former to photography enthusiasts and the latter to nature lovers.

Welgevonden: |An African Wilderness Reborn

By Ian Finlay

(Firefinch Publications in conjunction with Wild Dog Press, R395)

AND

Best of Getaway Gallery

(Jacana Media, R275)

While both Best of Getaway Gallery and Welgevonden are nature photography books, I would recommend each to its own distinct audience: the former to photography enthusiasts and the latter to nature lovers.

Of the two, easily the most alluring to the eye is Best of Getaway, a compilation of the best photographs that readers have sent to the nature and travel magazine over the past seven years. Beneath each photo is |the photographer’s name, a description of the equipment employed and a brief summary of where and how the image was captured.

The introduction’s claim that nearly all the images sent to Gallery are the work of “pure amateur enthusiasts” is the blackest of white lies. The term “amateur” seems ludicrous when you consider the top-of-the-range cameras and lenses used (trust me, none of these marvels were produced on a BlackBerry or some snap-and-tap) and the complexity of technique behind some of these images.

In addition, quite a number |of the images selected for this anthology are taken by the award-winning Greg du Toit, |who is to amateur wildlife photo-graphy what Tiger Woods is |to amateur golf (or amateur adultery).

That quibble aside, the quality and beauty of the images inside this really rather affordable coffee table book is practically outrageous. On many pages, your eyes will not want to blink. Among the images that I found most striking were Chad Cocking’s remarkable inverted portrait of a leopard lapping at a waterhole, the clear reflection of her face staring straight at the viewer (Cocking has recently had a book of his photos published); (actual amateur) Jason Prince’s elegiac and sepia-toned capture |of a lion, its mane mingling in the long grass as the wind blows; and (actual amateur) Devin Alexander’s startling close-up of a dragonfly.

Welgevonden is a tribute to |the protected reserve that was |set up to restore an area of the Waterberg back to its original state. Ian Finlay is a photo-grapher most famous for the iconic U2 album covers for Boy and War, quite possibly the most famous diptych in popular culture. He worked on this project for 10 years, starting with film before using digital cameras. Oddly, his efforts look quite amateurish in comparison to those featured in the Best of Getaway Gallery.

Many of the images have the level of grain you would usually find in digital photos taken on a high ISO and there is nominal but noticeable purple fringing in several photos. Still, the lack of Photoshop, polish and pretension actually adds to the book.

When Finlay captures the last drops of daylight dripping off the long dry grass, you know that this is how the sunset looks, without HDR toning to boost the colours. There are flies everywhere in Finlay’s book – on tails, snouts and eyelids – as there are in the wild, and these flies are not exterminated with a digital version of Doom. His photos, though most may be plain in comparison to those in Getaway Gallery, do have the odour of the veld. They carry the depth and heat of the day. In the same way that these animals exist in a natural state, so too do his images of them.

The animals are not humani-sed or deified or excessively prettified. They are what they are, which, needless to say, is more than enough.

Welgevonden is not a magical kingdom but a natural habitat. It is not a heaven but a haven where animals are free to be.

One of the things that first struck me about Obie Oberholzer’s photography when I first saw it some 10 years ago was his use of colour.

Diesel and Dust

By Obie Oberholzer

(Jacana, R450)

One of the things that first struck me about Obie Oberholzer’s photography when I first saw it some 10 years ago was his use of colour.

Colour throbbed in his pictures, with a vividness I had never seen before. Today, Photoshop makes it easy to boost vibrance and hues in a photograph; the patience and intricate knowledge of chemicals that was demanded of professional photographers who worked in a darkroom are now anachronistic.

So before viewing this, his latest photographic journal, which tracks his journeys across the southern (Botswana, Namibia, SA) and northern tip of Africa (Egypt, Yemen, Egypt), I wondered if modern technology had essentially robbed him of his palette.

I needn’t have worried. The man’s talent is boundless. The colour is still there, of course, and the rich detail, and, so far as I know, Oberholzer is still shooting on medium format film rather than using digital technology but, whereas many photographers use Photoshop to the maximum in order to make colours “pop”, especially in fashion shoots, Oberholzer’s colours seem embedded in his pictures rather than make-up that has been thickly applied on after the event.

You can study a photo layout in a fashion magazine, and the detail and the colours will “pop” but the images will somehow look cold. Oberholzer’s photos pulsate with life.

His photos tell a story, be it a sangoma in traditional attire laughing while using a payphone as his stocky wife occupies the foreground, arms folded and frowning, or welcoming Christmas decorations peeping through electrified razor wire. There is, throughout the photographer’s work, a lust for life. He looks for things that make him breathe.

Most professional photogra-phers develop a certain style, or focus on a specific subject, so producing work that is specific to them, a signature. Oberholzer’s roving eye, however, is utterly promiscuous. He photographs people, patterns, landscapes, architecture, everything and anything. Even things that shouldn’t be aesthetic, like flies crawling over an elephant carcass become, through his eye, something wondrous.

In every portrait in this book, there is the utmost respect for the person inside his viewfinder. It’s as if his eyes are mouths that feed on the world, and looking through this smorgasboard of images, you feel as if a door has cracked open, and you become aware of a world that you have yet to explore, of people you have yet to meet, you become aware of a life, thick as honey, you have yet to taste.

Binckes says he wrote the story because he was inspired by exploits of the Voortrekkers.

He says he wrote the story because he was inspired by the exploits of the Voortrekkers.

They say he trashed the memory of an entire generation of Afrikaners – so they symbolically burnt his book on a braai.

The book, Canvas under the Sky, by first-time writer Robin Binckes, a racy 335-page bodice-ripper in its second print run from local publishers 30 degrees South.

It is billed on the front cover as “an epic historical blockbuster… the sex, drugs and volkspele of the Great Trek”, and its hero, a 17-year-old called Rauch, has sex with everyone from his father’s freed slave to his stepmother, smoking dagga in between as the trekkers venture into the interior from Grahamstown.

It was all too much for the members of the Herstigte Nasionale Party and their leader Andries Breytenbach, who ceremoniously burnt the book at a gathering at their Pretoria offices recently.

Breytenbach, who says he’s been associated with the far-right political party ever since it was formed in October 1966 to fight the advent of black majority rule in South Africa at the expense of an Afrikaner white minority, said he was particularly aggrieved at Binckes’s interpretation of the Voortrekkers as a bunch of sex-crazed licentious ruffians, keeping “Hottentot, San and Khoisan mistresses”.

He said the HNP, with a claimed paid-up membership of 5 000 people and best remembered for its anachronistic leader and founder Jaap Marais and his predilection for raising budgies – among other things – was still fighting against what he bemoaned as the revision of history and the diminution of Afrikaans, particularly in classrooms.

“We are already being represented as oppressors and land grabbers. Now Binckes’s book presents our ancestors as leading smutty, perverted lives, rather than the God-fearing ordinary people that they were.”

But Binckes said he’d written the book out of admiration for the trekkers, long portrayed as dour Calvinists fleeing the British colonial authorities’ insistence that they free their slaves. He based it on his experiences as a tour guide taking overseas tourists to the Voortrekker Monument.

“I’ve been working as an historical tour guide between Joburg and Pretoria for the past 10 years, and I wrote the book out of admiration for their story. It’s a really wonderful story that hasn’t been told for quite a long time. I wanted to inject flesh and blood, feelings and passion into characters who had effectively been cardboard cutouts until then.”

His research was so detailed, he said, that his publishers commissioned him to do a non-fiction history of the Great Trek, which he has just finished.

Binckes’s publisher, Kerrin Cocks, confirmed that the non-fiction account would be published by September or October. It’s working title is the Great Trek Uncut.

“We are doing a 300 000-word book that’s massively sourced and referenced – including the smoking of marijuana and the promiscuity.

“I don’t know how something like this will chip away at the Afrikaner culture. I certainly don’t think the Voortrekkers were fragile by any means. They were solid, tough and courageous to do what they did, but they were human beings,” she said.

The problem was that their exploits had been mythologised by subsequent generations.

“The Afrikaners gave them god-like status and took away their human qualities,” Cocks argued.

But a

ll of this will only add grist to Breytenbach’s mill.

“Based on what Binckes wrote in his novel, we’ve got a major problem with him taking tour groups to the Voortrekker Monument.

“What’s he telling them, if his book is anything to go by?” Breytenbach asked.

“I’ve got no confidence in this so-called historical account that’s coming up.”

Binckes is puzzled by the outcry. “I didn’t know the HNP still existed. Who would have believed they’d burn my book?”

Breytenbach denied that Binckes’s life was in any danger. “Ag, nee, man, he’s mad,” he said. “We’re not militant people. We’re just angry about what he’s written and wanted to make a symbolic gesture saying just that.”

Renowned author Margaret Roberts shares new insights from her wealth of generational wisdom, writes Diane de Beer.

Many people think Margaret Roberts is a brand. That she is, but she’s also an individual who does exactly what she tells everyone else to do in the way of sustainability, living from the earth and keeping yourself healthy.

When I visit her at her suburban home in Pretoria, where she lives when she’s not on her farm in the De Wildt-Hartbeespoort area, she enquires what kind of tea I would like.

She has to make the choice – after all, she will know which one to pick. Scented geranium or lemon verbena? Scented geranium, because it’s less familiar. We went into the garden to pick it, I was given a few cuttings to grow my own, and the most refreshing tea was made on the spot.

That’s the thing about Roberts, she walks the walk. Her latest book Healing Foods is yet more testimony to that. It’s going to become the go-to encyclopedia for anyone who wants to know anything about plant food.

The world has finally caught up with Roberts, one of the few organic disciples decades ago when it wasn’t yet fashionable – and she’s ready for it. “I was raised by a generation who believed that we should make it better for others,” she says.

She has passed that on and refers to her daughter as someone whose love for everything and anything natural was bred into her.

Among other things, she’s the cook at the restaurant-tea garden at Roberts’s Herbal Centre, where all that is served is produced in the garden. Mother and daughter’s knowledge is being passed on to the grandchildren, who are being raised in the Roberts ethos.

But living in their space, it would be difficult not to adopt this amaz-ing lifestyle.

“It’s how I eat and think,” says Roberts, who not only uses herbs to flavour her food, but makes them a priority in all facets of her life.

It’s something that was passed on from Roberts’ grandmother to her mother.

The trick, of course, is that all of it can be grown at home – even in small suburban gardens, says Roberts, and if you wander through her own pride and joy, she sends you home not only with cuttings but also with fresh fruit, such as figs and grapes, that is in season.

Her first book was published in the early 1980s and she hasn’t stopped writing since.

From her products to telling you how to go about adopting the lifestyle and showing by example through the Herbal Centre, for Roberts it’s all about living and leading the way.

Through the years, she has not stopped exploring and gaining knowledge and as soon as she has enough insight, she passes it on, in a book and through her products.

As with so much of what she does, she turns to the source. She doesn’t use the internet for research. Specifically with plants and herbs, it’s about going back in time and investigating the lives of different plants and how they were used in past centuries.

Technology and fast lives have changed our focus and, more and more, people are noticing the effects of a hectic lifestyle on their well-being.

Naturally, food is the first place to go when looking for alternative options.

There’s an ongoing joyfulness, Roberts says, about dealing in good health. When you hear her talk, the enthusiasm and energy she brings to the topic are inspiring.

Because she has not stopped learning, there’s hardly an aspect she can’t comment on when it comes to health and what we eat.

“Foods and ailments are usually connected,” she says. That’s something we all know, but often choose to ignore.

Roberts’s latest book took five years to write. That may sound like an extended period, but once you begin digesting everything she covers in it, it does not seem such a long time.

She insists that when it comes to health, it’s not difficult to turn most problems around.

“Exam stress, for example,” she says, “is so easy to combat.”

She reels off the tissue salts – another of her fields of expertise – that you need to take. She says she even has a cure for someone who is “befoeterd, beneuk and/or bedonnerd (cantankerous, bad-tempered and/or fed-up)”!

She advocates that people play around with what they eat and note the results. “If you take less of the bad things, the improvement in your health is huge,” she says.

That is what this book sets out to do. It lists the ailments and you can check whether you have them or, if you do, how to treat them with food.

It’s a life-changer, because not only will you find ways to banish some of your ailments, but it could have an impact on your lifestyle, the way your garden grows and how you discover the glory of fruits and vegetables you might not have appreciated before.

She dedicates the book to her youngest daughter, Sandra, who is the one who answered her mother’s call as Roberts did before her.

“Many of the recipes in the pages are hers,” Roberts says. “She cooks with her daughter the way I cooked with her. Her kitchen smells of cakes and jams, pies and soups the way my mother’s and my farm kitchen did.”

This is the Roberts ethos she hopes to pass on down the genera-tions. It’s not a difficult ask with this extraordinary book.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Healing Foods

By Margaret Roberts

(Briza, R275)

This is one of those books where price shouldn’t be an obstacle. Ask friends to club together when they need to buy a gift because it will become part of your daily life.

What Roberts has done is to make it easy for readers to decipher the way they should eat. Or how foods can, in fact, aid healing. Yes, it would be ideal if we could all follow the Roberts dictum daily, but few can achieve that. At least we can come closer to our goals and reap the benefits of a healthier lifestyle.

She has packed every page with as much information as possible, and done this in a variety of ways.

There’s a list of healing plants in alphabetical order on the inside flaps of the book cover. These lead you to individual plants such as, for example, an onion. First, she describes the onion in all its glorious detail, where it originated and how it developed during the ages. Then she takes you through the growing process and all its uses. A bonus is the health note as well as a recipe on the side.

Each one is treated differently, depending on the information available or what the author wanted to put across.

When she has run through all the plants, she presents the reader with a list of ailments that are further discussed in great detail. Take a common one, such as diabetes.

First, she gives a general description of what type 1 and type 2 diabetes are. She advises sufferers to speak to their doctor and then follows with the danger foods which, of course, start with anything containing sugar.

This is followed by a discussion of the superfoods like wholewheat cereals as well as brown rice and wild rice, oats… it goes on and on.

The book starts with a list of healing foods, a description of what danger and what super foods are, supplements, pharmacologi-cal activity in common foods and then a few chapters on the different ways of using food to cure specific ailments.

She takes specific ingredients like salt, bread, yoghurt or water and has an in-depth look at what their strengths and weaknesses are. What she has done is cross off all the possible health hazards and made it as easy as possible for the reader to follow her path to a much-improved lifestyle.

If you’re a Roberts novice, start with this one. Followers won’t have to be pushed. How can you not heed her advice? This is her life’s work and she knows best.

At one of the many launches of the new David Kramer biography, the organisers cleverly brought the writers and the artist together to talk about the way the book was achieved and what to expect if you read it.

DAVID KRAMER, A BIOGRAPHY

By Dawid de Villiers and Mathilda Slabbert

(Tafelberg, R195)

At one of the many launches of the new David Kramer biography, the organisers cleverly brought the writers and the artist together to talk about the way the book was achieved and what to expect if you read it.

From the author’s point of view, it was the generosity of the artist and his wife Renaye with their time, that made the job so much easier.

What you have is a biography spanning 40 years from Kramer’s first band, The Creeps, which he refers to as the “first Boland punk band”, to where he is now.

He points out that he was born with rock ’n’ roll in his blood and when glimpsing his past in this fashion, music was destined to make the man.

Leaving the country to study design in England, he was exposed to the English music scene.

He would catch some of the best bands at the time in his student cafeteria. At the same time, he was also introduced to the local folk scene. This was when he realised he had to find his own voice and that folk – artist and guitar – was the way to go.

“In Worcester where I grew up, the cultural life revolved around the swimming pool,” he says. Which of course explains a lot about the madness and melancholy his lyrics evoke.

It also points to many of the reasons that his message was sometimes missed by an audience who wanted to escape rather than embrace the harshness of life.

But it was the power of these performers who only had their songs and their backing guitars that showed Kramer the way.

When he returned home, he started writing music and found different voices to explore what he wanted to say. It was something that constantly evolved and hasn’t stopped to this day.

That’s what makes Kramer such a fascinating artist to those who have followed his career closely. Not many can hold the attention so tightly as he has with a talent so huge, it’s tough to ignore.

“Academics come round, study your work and then also explain what exactly I do to me,” he says. But don’t believe him for a second.

Kramer is much too astute to simply stumble from one decade |to another. He might want his audience to believe that, but if you listen to him talk and watch him perform, the story unfolds much more clearly. He knew and still does, exactly what story he wanted to tell and has very cleverly gone out there and done precisely that.

It’s his talent and the way he embraces artists less fortunate that have heightened his artistry.

He captures his early days best: “I wanted to find my own voice. I realised I couldn’t be a British folk singer or an American rock star.

“I had to write about the world around me.”

What he did recognise because of his exposure to the outside world, was that he needed a truly South African persona.

Because of his design background, he was influenced by clothes and developed a specific look that has worked well. “I didn’t want to do the long hair, jeans and T-shirt look.”

When he returned he saw the style of especially trendy black men, went out and bought his first pair of Crockett and Jones shoes, Argyle socks, big baggy khaki pants that he gathered in the middle with a belt and a waistcoat (onderbaadjie). Then he added the Brylcreem and the middle parting of his hair which was shorn shorter than most at the time.

And the Kramer look was born.

Over the years that has evolved but there’s still that link with the past and a style that’s become a Kramer trademark.

His first song was a satirical Christopher Hope poem titled Kobus Le Grange Marais and it released a string of songs that told stories about the people and places he saw around him.

Quietly, Kramer started making his mark while at the same time “morsing (messing) with the taal”.

He was determined that his lyrics should have texture and quality and reflect what was happening on the streets. “I didn’t want to use that ronde mondjie (round mouth) coming from Pretoria when speaking Afrikaans.”

One of the most liberating moments was when he realised he was dealing with something that was not a white man’s language, which sent him into a whole new direction which is still ongoing.

He started exploring folk songs and their roots as he understood it. More and more as his music and political overtones evolved, Kramer became not only uncomfortable with being almal se pal but fell into a depression because of the way he was perceived by many of his fans.

The book, written by academics and leaning in that direction, does a good job of capturing especially this artist’s life. He is one of the few whose particular career path tells a very South African story. And even if he might not always recognise the power, he has touched many hearts and changed minds because of the way he approached entertainment.

I will never forget the impact of witnessing an elderly Griqua man do the rieldans on a festival stage during the early days of Karoo Kitaar Blues where we were introduced to a host of performers who’d never been exposed to such a big stage before. Today there are rieldans competitions around the country.

There are many other areas of his work, including the dramatic impact of the Taliep Petersen partnership, and the many young artists they discovered and sent on their way.

But listening to Kramer perform his music through the ages – the man and his guitar – is more than enough evidence of the artistry of this amazing performer.

The book might be a heavy read for some, but if you’re a Kramer follower, it will remind you of his impact from those early dark days.

While watching him perform, the audience held tightly in his hand, I was reminded that he once told me he didn’t want to perform into his 60s.

Time has made no difference to the quality of this man when he stands with his guitar and sings his music. He has a unique voice and hopefully we will be listening for many years to come.

• David Kramer is also available in Afrikaans.

Tom Bower traces Bernie Ecclestone’s rise from a teenager selling second-hand motorcycles in the late 1940s to the F1 supremo some 40 years later.

No Angel: The Secret Life of Bernie Ecclestone

By Tom Bower

(Faber and Faber, R154)

I have been a Formula One fan for most of my life and have watched most of the races on TV. I can even recall having attended F1 races at Kyalami.

I count among my most disappointing memories not being able to walk the streets of Monaco when a friend whizzed me through the principality during a visit to Europe.

Now I discover that the F1 circuit is run by a former second-hand motor dealer with some strange habits and that most of the teams have skeletons in their cupboards.

There appear to be very few principled players involved in the sport and it seems all is fair in love and F1.

In Tom Bower’s words, Bernie Ecclestone’s management values appear to be “autocracy, skuldug-gery and exploitation of his opponent’s dysfunctional charac-ters”. This very small man, perhaps only 1.6m tall, built Formula One into what it is today and has an insider’s view of all the racing teams and principals.

As Ecclestone at one stage said of the F1 fraternity, “everyone ran cars underweight and cheated”.

This is the authorised autobiography of Ecclestone and, accor-ding to the author, he made himself available to answer any questions and also arranged that most of the other participants in F1 were at hand to corroborate or refute his account of particular events.

Bower traces Ecclestone’s rise from a teenager selling second-hand motorcycles in the late 1940s to the F1 supremo some 40 years later, the inevitable deal maker.

The suspicious mother of a school friend remarked: “Don’t do much bargaining with Bernard. He gets the better of every deal.”

Ecclestone has a lot of racing history in his blood. He raced motorcycles, tried his hand at qualifying an F1 car himself at Monaco and also owned an F1 team.

His legacy will not be his average performance on a racetrack or the several accidents he was involved in, but rather the billion-dollar enterprise he built around F1, the second-most watched sport on TV, as well as the premier division of motor racing.

The book is remarkably candid about what happens inside F1 and the machinations of the organisa-tions involved in the sport.

On one side there is the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile) and on the other is Foca (F1 Constructors Association or F1CA).

Ecclestone acquired Brabham in 1971, an F1 team in decline, and this gave him entry to the F1CA.

From here it was a small step for the deal-making Ecclestone to start representing the F1 teams when negotiating fees to race at circuits and organise transport for them, obviously at a fee.

Not one of the teams was interested in doing this. They may have been united by their passion for racing, but they were divided on everything else and Ecclestone was willing to be the sacrificial lamb who did all the work. He would get a commission by unanimous vote from all present.

The F1CA eventually morphed into Foca and TV coverage became huge. Ecclestone obtained the rights to the TV coverage when everybody else thought it was an insignificant part of the business.

Most of the main characters are in the book – Max Mosley, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis, Flavio Briatori and Colin Chapman, as are most of the drivers. Ecclestone has acerbic comments about them all.

The relationship between Ecclestone and Mosley is also detailed in the book. He entered Ecclestone’s life at some time in 1971. He was the owner of the company that built March racing cars and eventually got himself elected as president of FIA.

Between Ecclestone and Mosley, the fate and future of F1 was sown up. They were two men with complementary styles: Ecclestone saw Mosley as a man who wanted everything absolutely clear (Mosley was a barrister and had studied physics) while Mosley decided that “Bernie can handle the lies”. (He was a second-hand car salesman at heart.)

Ecclestone would effectively end up running Foca while Mosley became president of FIA in 1991.

Today F1 is a multibillion-rand global business controlled by Ecclestone and he is most probably wheeling and dealing.

Not that one gets close to Ecclestone, who remains an enigma. It is what he does not comment and elaborate on that reveals the real Ecclestone.

It’s an engrossing book, perhaps more targeted at your petrol head than the general reader.

I am sure of two things in F1: the small silver-headed man who parades down the pit-lane, with perhaps a film star or two in tow, and the presence of a Ferrari or two on the grid.

For all the glamour and high profile of F1, it appears that wheel-ing and dealing still determines the future and I for one will watch the races on a Sunday with somewhat of a jaundiced eye.

An interview changed all that, writes Robert Lacey in a new book

LONDON: With her child-like enthusiasm and ready smile, Prince Charles’s new girlfriend was just the type of house-guest to appeal to the queen. The year was 1980. And there was no doubt that Lady Diana Spencer had passed the Balmoral test with flying colours.

The whole family liked the 19-year-old Diana and, to his mother’s evident relief, her eldest son seemed finally to have picked himself a winner. And who could blame her for thinking so?

What’s largely been forgotten is that the queen was one of her most caring supporters.

For the past year, Charles had been spending more and more time with Camilla, the wife of Guards officer Andrew Parker Bowles, and the affair had even reached the ears of the queen.

“Ma’am,” a senior courtier had informed her, “the Prince of Wales is having an affair with the wife of a brother officer, and the regiment don’t like it.”

Little wonder, then, that Charles’s parents were relieved to welcome Diana to the fold.

Ever vigilant, the queen was determined to protect her potential daughter-in-law from the overwhelming press interest.

Characteristically, the queen said nothing to Charles directly, but she did speak to Philip, who wrote their eldest son a carefully considered letter. Media pressure was creating an intolerable situation, said Philip, which meant that Charles must come to a rapid decision. Either he must offer Diana his hand, or he must break off the relationship to avoid compromising her reputation.

“Read it!” Charles would furiously exclaim to friends in later years, whipping the letter out of his breast pocket.

On the wedding day itself, in July 1981, Her Majesty was as giddy as everyone else.

Three weeks later, she welcomed Charles and Diana back from their ocean-going honeymoon with similar gusto.

But it was soon apparent that something was amiss. At midday, the queen would appear in the hall to take the women guests to lunch with the men on the grouse moors. It went without saying that no one should be a minute late.

“So there we’d all be waiting in the hall,” recalled a guest, “making polite conversation – and no Diana. So the queen would send off a footman, and he’d come back looking embarrassed. ‘Sorry, Ma’am, the Princess of Wales will not be joining the party for lunch’.”

The queen would go very silent. Friends saw the danger signs: the pursed lips, the extra-quick blink of the eyes. In the monarch’s view, staying in your room at lunchtime was something you did only if you were ill – or rather odd.

“The queen’s thoughts,” said a friend, “was that Diana was a ‘new girl’ who was finding things very difficult to get used to.”

It was rather more complicated than that, for in the year since she made her first successful appearance at Balmoral, Diana had made the astonishing discovery that her husband’s deepest emotions were committed to another woman.

Pondering on what had happened to the jolly girl who’d been “game for anything” one year earlier, Elizabeth referred the problem to experts.

By the end of September 1981, Diana met with leading Harley Street psychiatrists – and having done what she could to help Diana with her private demons, the queen summoned the editors of Fleet Street and asked them to give her more space.

“She’s not like the rest of us,” said the queen. “She’s very young.” Happily, the birth of Prince William on June 21, 1982, produced a certain calm.

The queen arrived the next day to congratulate her daughter-in-law and inspect the new arrival. “Thank goodness,” she said, “he hasn’t got ears like his father.”

After Harry was born in September 1984, several friends identified this surprisingly early date as the moment when the couple stopped “making the effort” with each other.

By 1987, both were having affairs. Charles was back with Camilla and Diana had turned to a series of lovers, from her cockney detective, Barry Mannakee, to Major James Hewitt and a car salesman, James Gilbey.

When the princess delivered her side of the troubled marriage into the public domain, by using a go-between to provide tape-recorded answers to questions posed by Andrew Morton, a young tabloid journalist, the queen was surprisingly sympathetic.

Without any real knowledge of how Morton had got his story, and with no doubt that she and the family were victims of the most monstrous betrayal, the queen and Philip held back from accusing Diana.

Even before Morton’s book was published, the queen and her husband had met Charles and Diana for an informal attempt at family therapy.

“Can you tell us what’s the matter, Diana?” asked Philip, at which his daughter-in-law collapsed in tears.

“Well, Charles,” said the queen rather desperately, turning to her son. “Can you explain to us?”

In December 1992, the then Prime Minister John Major announced that the Prince and Princess of Wales had decided to separate.

It was the queen’s fervent hope that this legal separation would stop the couple feuding – but the rivalry ran too deep.

But then Diana was interviewed by Martin Bashir, a show watched by 23 million viewers. “There were three of us in this marriage,” was her edgy skewering of the Camilla situation.

The queen was not impressed. And she acted, at last.

On December 20, 1995, a uniformed courier from Windsor Castle delivered a personal letter from the queen to her daughter-in-law.

The queen explained that she had been discussing the “sad and complicated situation” with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the prime minister, who were both in agreement, and she was now expressing her own personal wish that Charles and Diana should formally and finally divorce “in the best interests of the country”.

She ended the note with an affectionate scribble, “Love from Mama”, but her message brooked no argument.

The dream marriage formally came to an end the following August.

They could all now make a fresh start.

But just one year and three days later, the British ambassador in Paris rang Balmoral around 1am. The embassy was receiving police reports, he said, of a serious car crash that involved the Princess of Wales. The news of Diana’s death came through from Paris just before 4am

. The queen’s muted response to Princess Di’s death roused criticism. Compounding the queen’s absence was the lack of any flag flying at half-mast above Buckingham Palace as a sign of royal mourning.

By the fourth day after Diana’s death – Her Majesty showed another side. The Balmoral pastor was told to arrange a service that very evening at which the name of Diana would be mentioned.

The turn-around was incredible: in just 45 minutes, the queen had backtracked, adapted and totally reinvented her role in Diana’s ending.

“I, for one,” she said, “believe that there are lessons to be drawn from (Diana’s) life and from the extraordinary and moving reaction to her death.” She proved as good as her word.

l From A Brief Life of the Queen by Robert Lacey, published by Duckworth.

This weekend is the start of the Exclusive Books Summer Sale.

This weekend is the start of the Exclusive Books Summer Sale, which is one of those wonderful events that truly tells us we are up and running in a new year. It starts nationwide on Friday and, for Fanatics members, there’s a further 10 percent discount over the first weekend, while anyone else can score a free book with every nine books purchased.

As always, there’s a vast range of books, with many that would probably be too much of a luxury in normal times and at normal prices, but which are now very affordable.

There are also huge gift oppor-tunities for everyone in the family as well as friends.

With books being the best present possible, it’s simply a matter of matching the right book to the right person.

As always, there is a huge number of titles on sale and the mix covers a wide range – from simply a good read to those obscure titles that might grab the attention of only a few.

Wish You Weren’t Here, for example, is a compilation of the best of the worst travel writing, or you could go for something enduringly useful like The Complete Home Guide to Herbs and Oils.

It’s a chance to pick up the popular books you missed at a particular time, but also a chance to find those obscure topics and authors that grab your attention. Here are some personal favourites:

Architectural Excellence: 500 Iconic Buildings by Paul Cattermole (R268): This is an absolute steal at the price and could keep you busy with some serious armchair travel as you discover some of the most beautiful buildings in the world – from all the spectacular Frank Lloyd Wright houses to Santiago Calatrava’s extraordinary station in Lisbon.

Extraordinary Gardens of the World by Monty Don (R182): In similar vein, this one concentrates on gardens and it is fascinating to see what is considered the most beautiful garden. Is it simply spectacular because of the foliage, or is it the location? The criteria are perhaps less important than the overall impression you are left with. There are a few South African examples as well and it will surprise readers to find such places as Brenthurst’s splendid expanse and a squatter camp in Hout Bay are featured. It’s a fun but also inspiring insight.

Edible: An Illustrated Guide to The World’s Food Plants by National Geographic (R113): It’s trendy to plant your own vegetable and flower garden and, in future, it may be the only way to go – from an environmental as well as a financial point of view. This one goes a long way in helping with the plants that are viable and which will make it from the garden to the pot. With a foreword by vegetarian cook Deborah Madison, it’s a guide to the familiar and those that are less so. Locally, Margaret Roberts has recently launched her Healing Foods (watch out for a review or interview), but this one could be an excellent companion.

Georgia O’Keeffe by John Loengard (R137): This is exactly the kind of book you might pick up at a sale but disregard as too indul-gent when just spotted on the shelf. Loengard is a Life Magazine photo-grapher and this particular shoot was done to celebrate the then-reclusive artist’s daily life at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, where she had retired from the hustle and bustle of New York. It’s exquisite and shows both the artist and her work.

The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad (R72) and Faceless by Henning Mankell (R38): These are two perfect examples of catching up with books that were missed out on the first time round or could be bought as gifts. Mankell is always an option, while the other is an international bestseller that, with a title and reputation like this, cannot be missed.

Eminent Lives: Freud, Inventor of the Modern Mind by Peter D Kramer (R72): This is part of a series where well-known authors write about famous people. In this instance, Kramer is himself a psychiatrist and a leading authority on mental health. He throws light, both critical and sympathetic, on someone who is controversial and respected. It’s kept short in an age when most of us are battling to find enough time.

112 Mercer Street: Einstein, Russell, Godel, Pauli and the End of Innocence in Science by Burton Feldman (R64): This is another of those clever titles, hard to resist but also an intriguing insight into a different world. As World War II wound down, Albert Einstein invited three close friends, Titans of contemporary science and philosophy, to his home at 112 Mercer Street in Princeton to discuss and debate their vision of the post-war world. Just how often they met and what they talked about remains a matter of conjecture, but the author takes these historic meetings as a starting point and sketches their lives and contributions to this world.

Art and Technology in the 19th and 20th Centuries by Pierre Francastel (R80): This is the first time that this particular scholar’s work has been translated and, with this one, he studies and comments on the way technological develop-ments profoundly modified the symbolic systems of the Western world. For those in the field of architecture, this is a refreshing and new vision of times past.

Letter by Letter: An Alphabetical Miscellany by Laurent Pflughaupt (R120): We all know that letters are more than just the building blocks of our language. How they look and what they do has huge impact everywhere in the world. Here, a graphic designer and calligrapher uncovers the secrets of different letters while also analy-sing their allure, their origin, evolution as well as meanings. It’s much more than just a play on or with words.

• WIN! WIN! WIN!

One lucky reader can win a bumper hamper of sale books by answering an easy question.

To enter, SMS the word “Tonight”, followed by your name and the answer, plus yes or no if you would like us to contact you for marketing purposes, to 34518. The line closes at midnight tonight and winners will be notified by telephone. General competition rules apply.

SMSes charged at R1.50.

Question: Which book store is presenting the book sale?

Author Salman Rushdie will not be attending a literary festival in Jaipur as he has been informed of threats to his life.

AXA

INDIA-CULTURE-LD-RELIGION

NEW DELHI January 20 Sapa-dpa

LEAD: RUSHDIE TO MISS INDIAN LITERARY FESTIVAL OVER DEATH THREAT

EDS: ADDS QUOTES, BACKGROUND; EPA PHOTOS PLANNED

Author Salman Rushdie said Friday he would not be attending a literary festival in the north-western Indian city of Jaipur as he had been informed by intelligence agencies of threats to his life from paid assassins.

"I have now been informed by intelligence sources in Maharashtra and Rajasthan that paid assassins from the Mumbai underworld may be on their way to Jaipur to 'eliminate' me," Rushdie said in a statement.

"While I have some doubts about the accuracy of this intelligence, it would be irresponsible of me to come to the festival in such circumstances; irresponsible to my family, to the festival audience and to my fellow writers."

He later tweeted: "Very sad not to be at jaipur. I was told bombay mafia don issued weapons to 2 hitmen to 'eliminate' me. Will do video link instead. Damn."

Rushdie's decision was announced by the festival organizers within hours of its opening in the Rajasthan state capital under tight security.

He was scheduled to attend the opening of the five-day festival, the biggest in South Asia, but a controversy arose after a prominent Muslim seminary opposed his participation.

In 1989, Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for Rushdie to be killed over his book, The Satanic Verses, which forced the author to spend more than a decade underground.

"This is a great tragedy," said author William Dalrymple, one of the organizers. "We hope he will come back in the future."

A large number of policemen and sniffer dogs were deployed at the venue, Diggi Palace, and many metal detectors were on site despite Rushdie's absence, broadcaster NDTV reported.

The federal Home Ministry had raised a security alert based on intelligence that an Islamist militant organization may target the festival because of Rushdie's presence.

Visitors were being scanned at three different points and CCTVs had been placed at strategic locations.

"The free spirit of the festival is getting overwhelmed by the security," a disgruntled participant told NDTV.

More than 260 authors and tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the festival. Among the authors are Tom Stoppard, Michael Ondaatje, Ben Okri and television show host Oprah Winfrey.Author: Sunrita Sen

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]]> 1.1217234 Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:36:09 +0200 http://www.iol.co.za/dead-celebs-food-returns-to-haunt-us-1.1212848

Frank DeCaro is best known for his stint on The Daily Show with John Stewart but the comedian and talk radio host is now dishing out recipes.

LOS ANGELES: Comedian Frank DeCaro is best known for his stint on The Daily Show with John Stewart but the comedian and talk radio host is now dishing out recipes.

In his third book, The Dead Celebrity Cookbook: A Resurrection of Recipes From More Than 145 Stars of Stage and Screen, DeCaro provides the ingredients for Mae West’s fruit compote, comedian John Ritter’s favourite fudge and other recipes from deceased stars.

The 49-year-old performer spoke about his inspiration for the book, how he found the recipes and which are his favourites.

Where did the idea for the book come from?

When I was at Northwestern University in the early 1980s, my friends threw a ‘dead celebrity’ party. All the guests came dressed as stars who had gone to the great studio commissary in the sky. Everyone from Adam and Eve to Sid and Nancy were at that party. Our host was dressed as Judy Garland and carried a pill bottle that read “Take until dead”. It was one of the best parties I’ve ever been to. We didn’t have any ‘dead celebrity’ food at that party, though, and that sort of planted the seed for the Dead Celebrity Cookbook.

There are over 145 recipes. How did you get them?

Ever since that party, I’ve been collecting out-of-print cookbooks, supermarket flyers, spiral-bound manuals that came in microwave ovens in 1975, old magazines – anything that has a celebrity recipe in it. I curated the recipes from those sources, borrowing the lists of ingredients and rewriting the instructions so they made sense for modern home cooks.

Do you know if any of these celebrities actually cooked the dishes?

I certainly think they enjoyed them, even if someone else did the cooking. (Michael) Jackson was said to love sweet potato pie. Who doesn’t? Gary Coleman’s recipe (chicken vegetable soup) had a note attached that suggested it was one he grew up eating. As for Miss Crawford, I’d very much like to believe Joan poached her own salmon, if you’ll pardon the expression.

How did you decide to organise and categorise them all?

In a way that made sense to me as a lover of pop culture, and in a way in which readers could best appreciate the celebrities themselves and the amazing work they did while they were alive.

Have you baked any of the recipes yourself?

I taste-tested about a third of them, some of which are really delicious; some, not so much.

Do you have a personal favourite?

Liberace’s sticky buns! I made 24 of them and ate nine before they were cool enough to handle. They’re so good!

Who is this book for? Movie buffs, pop culture aficionados, those who collect Hollywood memorabilia or your gay best friends?

I did this book for home cooks with a sense of humour. Pop culture junkies will love the chance to reminisce about stars. But really, I wrote it for people who don’t know who these celebrities are: younger readers, for instance. I hope they discover these stars and their work through this book.

Any plans for a follow-up?

This is only the first in what I hope will be a series of ‘Dead Celebrity Cookbooks.’ It may have an irreverent title, but the book is a love letter to the stars. It’s important to me that audiences don’t forget these incredibly talented people. They may be gone, but their work – and their recipes – live on. – Reuters