A Walk with a White Bushman

London: Chatto & Windus. Very Good/Very Good. 1986. Hard Cover. 8vo 0701131683 Second impression. Dust jacket complete, unclipped. Original cloth boards with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership marks. Slight darkening to pages. 326 pages clean and tight. Whether writing or speaking, Laurens van der Post has that rare ability to rouse the imagination and reach to the soul, to enlarge horizons, even to change people's lives. No one knows this better than Jean-Marc Pottiez, a fellow 'Eurafricasian' (as he calls the author, with whom he shares a deep-rooted attachment to Europe, Africa and Japan) and the prime mover of this book. It was he who initiated the series of spontaneous discussions which form its core, and he who drew from Sir Laurens this fluent, fascinating and pointed commentary on many of the key issues and personalities of our time. The result is a book brimming with ideas, insights, people and events; at once thoughtful and exciting, mellow yet full of promise, autobiographical but also topical. For all the apparent diversity of its elements - world leaders, writers, tribespeople, politicians, intriguing stories of human and animal life - they are held together by Laurens van der Post's distinctive and cohesive vision. All form part of a whole, a positive, healing, unifying outlook which is sustained by a strong set of values forged from a lifetime of intense experience and challenge. For those who have never ventured with Laurens van der Post before, A Walk with a White Bushman offers a tempting preamble to many longer explorations. For those who have, it offers the kind of renewed inspiration of which there can never be too much. .