Firstly, happy birthday Joan! And thank you for coming all the way on a wild and wet night for bookclub. It was wonderful to share your birthday and gave me an opportunity to try out some recipes from The Real Meal Revolution for you.
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| Standing: Sue W, Heather, Sue K, Terry, Bev, Jane and Joan, with Izak in the front in his colourful jumper, especially chosen to brighten up a cold, wet, wild and windy night. |
It was a fascinating and entertaining evening with Izak de Vries who came to speak to us about the publishing business in South Africa. Izak, a published writer himself, works for Lapa Uitgewers, and we were treated to some inside information on what's hot and what's not in local books.
Seems like the author to look out for is Martin Steyn, who has made a huge name for himself as a writer of thrillers. Move over Deon Meyer! We eagerly await the English translation ... and some of us may even try it in Afrikaans.
Other books from Lapa that sound fantastic are a trilogy by Irma Joubert about a child that is pushed from a train bound for a Nazi concentration camp in Eastern Europe and who, after a series of amazing events, ends up in South Africa.
We also got to hear that the huge success of The Real Meal Revolution by Tim Noakes, Sally-Ann Creed, Jonno Proudfoot and David Grier has pushed its publisher, Quivertree Publishers, right up there with the big players and has become the biggest selling cookbook in South African history. Even though the first (small) edition was full of mistakes, as I discovered to my cost while trying to harden up the seed crackers! Very interesting - and thank you Izak for entertaining us all.
And a special thank you to Sue K for organising it all -
and for the delightful 'Meerkat' red wine that without a doubt contributed to the warmth of the evening.
