Karoo Morning. An Autobiography (1918-35)

(Cape Town: David Philip, 1977) 0949968765. 8vo; original brown boards, lettered in gilt on spine; pictorial dustwrapper; pp. xi + (i) + 267; plates. Dustwrapper somewhat rubbed and edgeworn; spotting to edges and endpapers, sporadically elsewhere; "Xmas 1977" in pen to front pastedown. Good condition. "'I was given a good life in a lovable world among remarkable people.' This is Guy Butler's record of his boyhood - to the age of 18 - in Cradock in the Eastern Cape. Though all the complex strands contributing to the troubled situation in South Africa today were present, and observed, yet it was a relatively carefree time when the only serious burden a young boy was aware of was the financial stringency of the Depression. His childhood was lit by the joyous enterprises of the ebullient family of five Butler children and their multifold farming cousins, and by the sense of community in family and in the small Karoo village. This endearing, often moving, book, rich in anecdote, is infused with humour and the warmth of the memorable personalities that crowd its chapters. But above all we find the sure touch of the born storyteller and his marvellous, zestful relish in the craft of words." .