Note by Matthew Blackman
03rd February 2021
2020 proved a disappointing year for our publication of South African classics. We attempted to get the copyright for Peter Abrahams’s Path of Thunder, a book on interracial love just before the beginning of apartheid proper. Sadly we were not able to acquire it but are delighted to hear that Faber and Faber will be republishing Abrahams’s novels.
22nd October 2020
A book and a website are two very different animals. Matthew reflects on the importance of resources, and the challenges of converting a book into a website.
18th August 2020
In 1976, someone threw a petrol bomb into an office at Lovedale. Terrified that irreplaceable historical artefacts might be destroyed, the publishing house transferred its records to Rhodes University. In the course of the move the original typescript of Mhudi surfaced…
Starting a literary publishing project in South Africa is a silly idea – but Matthew writes about the good reasons to do it anyway…