Tall Stories - Fine Books For Discerning People. 1st Newsletter

Welcome to the inaugural, first-ever Tall Stories Newsletter. (Please click on the heading if you have received this without any pictures in the text and it will take you to view the newsletter online).
As you are aware it has been both much delayed and anticipated and we have grown heartily sick of all the media attention and nagging as to when it will appear. The truth may now be revealed. It was the government who asked us if we would just let them get the election out of the way and install the new president before we took over the all the lime light. Out of civic duty we agreed to do so. Freed from those fetters we now present: The Newsletter. We aim to send one out every full moon solstice…, oh no, wait, I mean every month (or when we feel like it). We’re very particular that way. We shall strive to keep it short and sweet so as not to clog up your inbox, and will try to keep you awake through the reading of it.A short introduction may be in order. It seems logical somehow, this being the first Newsletter, and us dealing in books. Since we are not overly deconstructivist, we quite like the traditional narrative structure of having a beginning, a middle and an end. We even quite like the idea of logic, generally.So here goes: Tall Stories is the best bookshop in the world (this is true as nearly all of our family members both agree on, and confirm the fact). We, your hosts, are (in alphabetical order): André and Meredith, and Tall Stories is our beast. We like it very much, most of the time, but not so much when it wakes us up at 3 a.m. We have several motto’s and guiding principles. Here are a few: Fine books for discerning people. There is no substitute for knowledge. Hand-picked books for picked people, by picky owners. Almost no situation can be improved by panicking. As addictions go, books are better than most.There are many more, but I do not want to tire you, yet. We deal in the best new, pre-loved and collectable books. Our prices range from R20 to infinity and beyond, or R15 000 at the moment.

In this newsletter (the first) , we have decided to feature a collectable book as well as an unused book.

Baines, T Scenery and Events in South Africa : A Facsimile Reprint of the 1852 Edition of Hand-Coloured Lithographs, with an Introduction and Descriptive Notes By Frank Bradlow Imprint: Cape Town / Rotterdam, A. A. Balkema, 1977 Binding: Hardback LIMITED EDITION. Book Condition: Near Fine. Binding: Blue Skivertex. Jacket: No Jacket. Elephant Folio. Unpaginated. This is number 282 / 600 copies only. Reproductions of the six plates. Accompanying descriptive text. Boards very slightly bowed. R2250.00

The following is taken from Wikipedia : (John) Thomas Baines

(27 November 1820 - 8 May 1875) was an English artist and explorer of British colonial southern Africa and Australia. Born in King's Lynn, Norfolk. Baines was apprenticed to a coach painter at an early age. When he was 22 he left England for South Africa where he worked for a while in Cape Town as a scenic and portrait artist, and as official war artist during the so-called Eighth Frontier War for the British Army. In 1858 Baines accompanied David Livingstone along the Zambezi, and was one of the first white men to view Victoria Falls. In 1869 he led one of the first gold prospecting expeditions to Mashonaland in what later became Rhodesia. From 1861 to 1862 Baines and James Chapman undertook an expedition to South West Africa. Chapman’s Travels in the Interior of South Africa (1868) and Baines' Explorations in South-West Africa (1864), provide a rare account of different perspectives on the same trip. This was the first expedition during which extensive use was made of both photography and painting, and in addition both men kept journals. In 1870 Baines was granted a concession to explore for gold between the Gweru and Hunyani rivers by Lobengula, leader of the Matabele nation. Thomas Baines died in Durban in 1875. Today he is best known for his detailed paintings and sketches which give a unique insight into colonial life in southern Africa and Australia. Many of his pictures are held by the National Library of Australia, National Archives of Zimbabwe, National Maritime Museum, Brenthurst Library and the Royal Geographical Society.

We have just unpacked copies of Memorandum : a story with paintings by Marlene van Niekerk & Adriaan van Zyl.

In this unique book, the text and visual images offer parallel narratives that resonate poignantly with each other. Adriaan van Zyl's series of more than 20 paintings portrays a patient's experience from waiting room to ward giving a quietly disturbing view of the soullessness of hospitals in general. Marlene van Niekerk's accompanying story is a narrative by JP Wiid, a lonely man who is diagnosed with cancer of the liver just before his retirement. The night before a scheduled operation he starts writing a "memorandum" about an experience he had during his first stay at the hospital - sharing a ward with two enigmatic men in a state of postnarcotic euphoria, he overheard their strange conversation, one which was to have a profound effect on his life. He writes how, in the ensuing four months, he becomes a regular visitor to the library, anxious to learn more about the diverse concepts he had been exposed to for the first time. Everything new which Wiid learns about the world comforts him and helps him to accept his fate. Most importantly he makes a friend for the first time - an eccentric but very helpful librarian. While writing the memorandum, Wiid makes a life-changing decision - not to have the operation the next day. He chooses instead to make the rest of his life worth living by filling it with knowledge about cultures, structures, histories, literature and music. In the process he discovers his true self - and his true vocation.Hardcover, 136 pages ISBN-13: 978-0-7981-4730-9 published November 2006, by Human & Rousseau.

Who is Marlene van Niekerk ? Marlene van Niekerk is a South African author who is best known for her award-winning novels Triomf and Agaat. Her graphic and controversial descriptions of a poor Afrikaner family in Johannesburg brought her to the forefront of a post-apartheid society, still struggling to come to terms with all the changes in South Africa. She was born on 10 November 1954, on the farm Tygerhoek near Caledon in the Western Cape, South Africa. She studied Languages and Philosophy at Stellenbosch University where she obtained an MA. In 1979 she moved to Germany and from 1980 - 1985 she continued her studies of philosophy in the Netherlands where she obtained a Doctorate. She is now professor at the Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, at the University of Stellenbosch.


Triomf (translated by Leon de Kock) was a New York Times Notable Book, 2004, won the CNA Literary Award, and M-Net Prize in South Africa and the prestigious Noma Award, the first Afrikaans novel to do so. The film adaptation, directed by Michael Raeburn, won the Best South African Film Award at the Durban International Film Festival, 2008. The equally well-awarded Agaat ( Sunday Times Prize Literary Prize 2007 and Hertzog Prize 2007) was translated as The Way of the Women by Michiel Heyns, who won the Sol Plaatje Award for his translation.



Sources : http://www.ukzn.ac.za/
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.youtube.com/user/BOOKVideoSA

Tall Stories can be found on the world wide web, thusly :

e-mail : tallstories@megaweb.co.za

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Republic of South Africa

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