African Wildlife & Environment Issue 77 FINAL ISSUE

GOOD READS

A Geologist's Adventures Norman, Nick (2020). Going to Ground. A geologist's adventures in Africa and South America. The Franschhoek Press, Franschhoek, South Africa. Soft cover, 15x23 cm, 222 pp, colour photographs in middle section, maps on cover flaps. ISBN 978-0- 62086-642-21. Distribution by Protea Distribution; promoted by Helco Promotions (contact Helen Holyoake at helen@helco.co.za.) R320.

to Ground, because Nick writes very well, very sincerely and with an underlying thread of humour that is most refreshing. He and I are about the same age, had rather similar parallel careers in completely different fields, and we even share some friends and acquaintances. I found out that Nick's friend George Zaloumis was also my friend when we were at Wits together. In Chapter four, Nick describes a trip to Malawi that he and George undertook in Nick's old Ford Anglia. In Malawi they found themselves driving at night up a mountain through vast plantations of Pinus patula . They came upon a house ablaze with lights in the mist. A dog barked at them from above the bottom half of a stable door, while the sound of classic music wafted from inside the house. A red-haired, red-bearded figure appeared behind the dog. "Hello" he shouted. When he opened the door, Nick and George saw he was wearing a kilt. "Come on in," he said, and they shook hands. "I'm John Greig". Of course, that was the same John Comrie Greig who was the Editor of WESSA's A frican Wildlife magazine for many years, when he and I became good friends. John was a very good investigative reporter, and together we caused the Royal Dutch Shell company some discomfort with our exposé of their sale of the banned insecticide, Dieldrin, in southern African countries. The South African public boycotted Shell petrol stations as a result. Nick also describes his visit to Barberton where he met up with Tony and Sandie Ferrar in Barberton, where there is now a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site, in which an important role is played by Tony, who is a former CEO of WESSA. The Barberton Makhonjwa Mountains site comprises 40% of the Barberton Greenstone Belt, one of the world’s oldest geological structures. The property represents the best-preserved succession of volcanic and sedimentary rock dating back 3.6 to 3.25 billion years and forms a diverse repository of information on surface conditions, meteorite impacts, volcanism, continent-building processes and the environment of early life. This is a wonderfully entertaining and informative book, and comes very highly recommended. Buy it for yourself, for a friend or a relative, and be inspired by the story of that 'dozy, unsocialised child' who has made a big mark on the world in his well-lived life.

"A dozy, unsocialised child follows a boringly ordinary course through life until gradually things start to work out for him in increasingly extraordinary ways. The only prize I ever won at school was the Natural History Prize, no academic accolades or colours for any sport. I was rewarded for loving undemanding nature; almost a non-prize. Nearly fifty years later, in a small town I had never visited before, I was introduced to the author of a slim volume on the geography of the area. 'Not THE Nick Norman,' she asked. I might have blushed. In 1987, aged 42 I had married, and gone on to father two children, one now a top lawyer, the other on a similar trajectory in medicine. Having dreamt of being a farmer, I owned a farm in Franschhoek, which put me in about the most envied group of people in South Africa. After a successful career in mineral exploration in Africa and South America I turned my hand to writing about geology in a way accessible to lay readers. Three best-sellers followed." Those are the words of Nick Norman, author of Geological Journeys, Geology off the beaten track, Box of Rocks and T he Extraordinary World of Diamonds. I got a lot of pleasure reading Going

4 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 77 (2020)