The Game Ranger, the Knife, the Lion and the Sheep: 20 Tales about Curious Characters from Southern Africa

by David Bristow

David Bristow offers spellbinding stories of some amazing, little-known characters from South Africa, past and very past. There is Krotoa, the Khoi maiden who is found working in the Van Riebeeck household as both servant and interpreter, who became the concubine of Danish surgeon Pieter Van Meerhoff and later his wife. Mevrou Maria Mouton, who preferred to socialize with the slaves than her husband on their farm in the Swartland, and conspired to murder him. And the giant Trekboer Coenraad de Buys—rebel, renegade, a man with a price on his head who married many women and fathered a small nation. The explorer Lichtenstein called him a modern-day Hercules. These characters and more are brought to life in The Game Ranger, the Knife, the Lion and the Sheep .

Genres: Africa, Biography

200 pages, Paperback

Published December 11, 2018

About the author

David Bristow, former editor of Getaway magazine, is an entertaining writer with a palpable love of the Drakensberg. His writing is both factual and lyrical, and he doesn't beat about the bush. He has written and contributed to several books about hiking and travel, among them Drakensberg Walks, Mountains of South Africa and the wildly popular 1001 Places To See Before You Die, published by Random House Struik. He is a freelance journalist, photographer, ecologist, environmentalist (with a Master's Degree in Environmental Studies) and stubborn mountaineer.

Reviews

[Nancy Mcdaniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

David is quite the story teller. He clearly knows tons about South African history (even some sort of obscure) and is in love with it..
He is a intrepid researcher and a entertaining writer. I knew of a couple of these people and part of their stories but learned SO much more about one of my favorite countries and her people.

[Jane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Entertaining stories, but sometimes difficult to get into. A lot of facts.

[Cecilia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not like the politics that cropped up every time.