Publisher's Synopsis
Following the bestselling Of Warriors, Lovers and Prophets and Of Tricksters, Tyrants and Turncoats, this is the latest popular history by Max du Preez. In Of Renegades, Romantics and Rabble-Rousers, he takes the reader on a fascinating journey through southern African history, covering an array of stories spanning three centuries. - The book tells the story of the French boy who was shipwrecked in Eastern Cape early eighteenth century and brought up by Xhosa; and of Indonesian kings, Islamic scholars and princes who were brought to the Cape as political prisoners of Dutch. It introduces the reader to Yankee Wood, an American slave who escaped and came to South Africa and launched a hotel and newspaper. And it tells the tale of the Sachs clan (Bernard, Solly and Albie), explores the great love story of Botswana's Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams, and investigates the motives and fate of John Harris, the Johannesburg station bomber. - With his skilful research and conversational style of writing, Du Preez captures historical fact in an imaginative way and brings to life stories of yesteryear. This is history as storytelling at its very best. -
