No Outspan
No Outspan is a fascinating account of life in South Africa from the early 1920s until the early 1940s, when the author was Deputy Prime Minister of South Africa. Many are the stories told by the author, both those in which he played a part and those which came to his attention and which he tells with relish.
No Outspan is a fascinating account of life in South Africa from the early 1920s until the early 1940s, when the author was Deputy Prime Minister of South Africa. Many are the stories told by the author, both those in which he played a part and those which came to his attention and which he tells with relish.
Deneys Reitz played an important role in the creation of the Kruger National Park, although his party had been voted out of office by the time it was formally established. It says much about Reitz that, despite the fact that he was an outspoken and forceful opponent of the Nationalist Party, his relationships with political opponents transcended politics. Thus he was appointed as one of the founding trustees of the Kruger National Park despite being an opposition Member of Parliament. No Outspan gives fascinating insight into the early development of the Kruger National Park.
Deneys Reitz learned to cherish wild life, and his involvement with wild life and various game reserves he helped establish while in office is a theme that runs throughout the book. He gave up a safe parliamentary seat in Port Elizabeth in order to stand in a marginal seat in what he calls ‘the low country’ – that had the whole of the Kruger Park within its constituency. Against the odds, he won.
An intensely interesting episode in the book is the fall of Hertzog as leader of a coalition government over the issue of South Africa’s stand in the Second World War. By a strange quirk of fate, Parliament was recalled from recess for a few days, for a purely technical reason, and it so happened that war was declared just then. Hertzog’s hand was thus forced, the coalition split, and the House of Assembly voted in favour of Smuts’s proposal to join the Allies in the war effort, thereby defeating a shocked Hertzog. As a Cabinet Minister in the coalition government, Deneys Reitz had a front row seat in all of this – and he tells the story as no one else could.
No Outspan is sound evidence of what Smuts said after Reitz’s death in 1944: ‘His loss is a national one and will be mourned all over this country which he knew and loved as no other’.
| Author | Deneys Reitz |
|---|---|
| Publisher | The House of Emslie |
| Place | Edinburgh |
| Year | 2019 (originally published in 1943) |
| ISBN | 9780639989211 |
| Binding | Paperback |
| Condition | As New |
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New: Exactly as it says.
As New: Pretty much new but shows small signs of having been read; inside it will be clean without any inscriptions or stamps; might contain a remainder mark.
Very Good: Might have some creases on the spine; no hard cracks; maybe slight forward lean and short inscription inside; perhaps very minor bumping on the corners of the book; inside clean but the page edges might be slightly yellowed.
Good: A few creases on the spine, perhaps a forward lean, bumping on corners or shelfwear; maybe an inscription inside or some shelfwear or a small tear or two on the dustjacket; inside clean but page edges might be somewhat yellowed.
Fair: In overall good condition, might have a severe forward lean to the spine, an inscription, bumping to corners; one or two folds on the covers and yellowed pages; in exceptional cases these books might contain some library stamps and stickers or have neat sticky tape which was used to fix a short, closed tear.
Poor: We rarely sell poor condition books, unless the books are in demand and difficult to find in a better condition. Poor condition books are still perfect for a good read, all pages will be intact and none threatening to fall out; most probably a reading copy only.