Friends of the Bushveld

(London: Jonathan Cape, 1954). 8vo; original yellow cloth; pictorial dustwrapper; tinted top edge; pp. 223; illustrated from drawings by Grace Huxtable. Dustwrapper foxed and tanned, partially discoloured, with trace of fishmothing, and archival tape repairs to reverse of edge-tears; top fore-corner of initial leaves somewhat bleached; some spotting to edges; earlier owner's name on front pastedown; some foxing. Fair to good condition. "Fay King, herself born and brought up in South Africa, brings love and knowledge of the country to this book about a family living on a Bushveld farm. It is a happy life for Jane le Roux and her four brothers and sisters. Once a week they visit the dorp and see their grandmother and their friends there, but for the rest of the time they are content to be in the Bushveld, where they hear ancient legends from the Zulu Teller of Tales, or watch the wild animals and birds, for whom the le Roux land is sanctuary, living out their often fierce lives (there are exciting accounts of lions hunting buck, or of fights between oddly assorted creatures - an eagle and a baboon, a snake and a wild cat)." .