Newsflash!!
Gillian
Godsell will interview our member Gerald Groenewald (whom some of you may have heard lecturing on
our volume 36, Trials of Slavery,
which he co-edited with Nigel Worden, in January at UCT’s
Summer School) about the VRS on Radio Today, a Johannesburg radio station, on
Tuesday 22nd September at 9 am. You can hear him, I believe, on DSTV voice
channel 169. Do tune in! A big thank you to new member Ian
Clark for making the connections which have resulted in Gerald Groenewald’s radio interview about the VRS.
AGM and
Our
2009 AGM will be held in the Committee Room, Centre for the Book,
As
has become something of a tradition by now, we were there with a corner stand
near one of the entrances. Eleven brave, bold and beautiful volunteer VRS
members had much to do selling volumes and gaining new members. They were Nigel
Amschwand, Tanya Barben,
Susie Newton-King, Arne Schaefer, Sandy Shell, Piet Westra, Chris Saunders, Elizabeth van Heyningen,
Margaret Kooy, Cora Ovens, Alan Morris and Howard
Phillips. I really think that next year we must try to have two people per
shift over the busier periods! Twenty-four new members joined – one of them
from
Conferences
attended by Council members – who did not miss the opportunity to market our
volumes and recruit new members – have been a Slavery Conference in
Michael
Bremner of Scottburgh;
Shirley Paladin from Rivonia; Sean Shreve of Somerset
West; Megan Phillips from Kimberley (this was a gift subscription from her
father); Herbert A Farrow from Fish Hoek; Dr Susan Brodrick of Newlands; Michael Charton of Constantia; Ian Clark of Bergvliet,
James Whyle of Rosebank,
Johannesburg; Gregory Tarrant from Durban; Barry Brown of Sandton;
George Oettle of Auckland Park; Amy Coetzer of Swakopmund, Namibia;
Phoebe Hirsch of Green Point; Shireen Scott of
Somerset West
Joined at the Cape Town International
Book Fair: Maano
Tuwani of Makhado; Mick
Taylor of the United States; Fred Gilissen of Plumstead; Mervyn Rosenberg of
Sea Point; Horst Kleinschmidt of St James; Rian Maarten of Tyger Valley; Ross Devenish of Barrydale;
Ken Hundermark of Plumstead;
Nick Kenyon of Wynberg, Cape Town; Fred de Bruin of
Camps Bay; Kenneth Gainsford of Edgemead;
Johannes Smith of Queenstown; Sentail Chinna Veeriah of Gaborone, Botswana; Wayne Wakfer
of Bryanston; Heather Scott of Somerset West; John
Allen of Plumstead; Sally-Ann Powrie
of Bothasig; Grant Hatch of Montagu;
David Slingsby of Tokai; Hentie
van der Merwe of
Observatory; Michael Walker of St James; Harvey Tyson of Hermanus;
Lesley Hart of Claremont; Pam Kolbe of Malmesbury; Mr Peter Bradfield of Wast
London; Mrs Gillian Godsell
of Craighall Park (this is a gift sub from Mr Ian Clark); Emile C Coetzee
from Waverley, Pretoria; Vibeke Viestad
from the University of Oslo in Norway; Rowan Hutchison from Knysna;
Michael van Niekerk of Stellenbosch;
Paul van Niekerk from Franschhoek
and David van Niekerk from Constantia – these three
sons were all enrolled as gift subs by their father, Mr
J F van Niekerk, who is obviously starting a family
tradition!
Joined at the SAHA conference: Prof F A Mouton of Unisa
and Mr J N Klee of
Joined at
the Alan Paton Conference in Pietermaritzburg: Mr Cedric Sissing of Adams Bookshop, Mrs
Jewel Koopman, organizer of the conference, Prof M Z Malaba of UKZN, Ms Mary Burton of Rondebosch,
Mr Peter Nel of Pietermaritzburg, Mr Thayalan Reddy of
This
brings our membership to 1190 – come on, out there, enrol
your son/daughter/grandson/granddaughter on a gift subscription and let’s hit
1200 before our AGM in October.
Tribute to Doreen Ovendale
Doreen
Ovendale has rendered another year of excellent
service to the Society and so a big thank you to her.
The office wouldn’t be the same without her – we don’t know what we would do without her!
Donations
We
would like to thank all those members who donated money to the Society in 2009
very much. Your generosity is greatly appreciated.
In Memoriam
Mrs J D
Middelman of Kenilworth; Mr
H.J. Hustler of Emerald Hill, Mrs E B Saunders of
Peers Village, Valyland; Mr
H F van der Westhuyzen of Noordhoek
Launch of 2009 volume
in Pietermaritzburg
The
Society took advantage of the fact that the Alan Paton
Centre in Pietermaritzburg was holding a conference
to mark its 20th Anniversary, to launch its 90th volume, Alan Paton:
Selected Letters, on this most fitting occasion. Speakers at this launch
were the volume’s editor, Professor Peter Alexander from Sydney, and the VRS’s chair, Professor Howard Phillips, who presented one
copy of the volume to Alan Paton’s widow, Mrs Anne Paton, and one to his
son, Dr David Paton (who will also attend the launch
in Cape Town on 29th October). The VRS also took advantage of the presence at
the conference of Professor Phillips and vice-chair Dr Elizabeth van Heyningen, to publicize its activities and sell copies of
its volumes. The immediate results – six new members enrolled and 19 volumes
sold – were a fair reward. In addition, the contacts that they made at the
conference yielded an agreement that the Alan Paton
Centre would stock copies of volume 40 to sell to the public and an invitation
to the VRS to display its books at the Msunduzi
Heritage Forum Bookfest in Pietermaritzburg
in September.
Special Offer – Malan & Merriman
John X Merriman was one of
Compiled by Cora
Ovens & Howard Phillips. Afrikaans by Chris van der Merwe.
Van Riebeeck Society,
Centre for the Book,
Tel: +27 (0)21 423-8424 Fax: 086 670
9828
Email: vanriebk@mweb.co.za. Website: www.vanriebeecksociety.co.za