A GUN MOST MURDEROUS
One day I tried to crack a joke about the amount of sugar taken by the old transport drivers in their coffee – you know the one about “I take two and I take six” but got blank stares from my guests. One man had just turned 40 and was probably at school when the history they teach these days had already turned away from Pilgrim’s Rest, the Barberton gold rush and the Boer War. He’s never heard about the Jameson Raid either.
It was a rude awakening. I am probably fast “outgrowing” the collective memory of many of my younger friends! So I tested their knowledge a bit more; the connection between Napoleon, St Helena and the Boer War prisoners on the island was, can you believe it, stretching it a bit, but I gave up when they thought Percy Fitzpatrick was a New Zealand rugby player. They have never read Jock of the Bushveld, but they did (sigh of relief) at least recall watching the movie.
On a personal note, Iin turn can hardly recall that movie. At the time when it was all the rage, I thought it such a poor rendition of what I had grown to love through Edmund Caldwell’s beautiful illustrations, that I could barely force myself to watch the film.
AN ICONIC WRITER
So, writing about Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), I should perhaps start by introducing, and for the influence that he has exerted on contemporary style.”
