T.V.BULPIN.........."THE IVORY TRAIL"

Taking a short break recently I was able to get my nose into a copy of ,what is considered the greatest  of T.V.Bulpin's stories, "The Ivory Trail" and what a story it is !.Bvekenya the Shanganes called him-'The one who swaggers as he walks'.Just reading the 'Prelude' was enough to enthrall me and,no doubt many others before me.He was a legend of the bush and no yarn could be told about the bush without Bvekenya's name cropping up.His real name was Cecil Barnard but he always added 'better known as Bvekenya !' Born in 1886 in  the small village of Knysna he soon became  familiar with the local elephants , a passion that he enjoyed all his life.
The book in 18 chapters takes the reader through his many adventures at a time when the elephant roamed the bush and was of course hunted for his tusks.Illustrated throughout by the attractively graphic and much admired C T Astley Maberly ,Bvekenya's many adventures along the "Ivory Trail' are brilliantly told.

Find a copy . you will enjoy it !

T.V.Bulpin 1918-1999

Thomas Victor Bulpin can truly be described as a great South African writer,one who travelled the length and breadth of the country in search of history, places and peoples,whether they were black, white,coloured or Bushmen yellow.Essentially Bulpin was a travel writer but he really was more than that.Like his contemporary Lawrence Green, he revelled in making  friends,discovering new flowers and plants,enjoying the various foods he found as well as the sounds and melodies of Africa,new and old.Whilst his books are well known with enticing titles like 'Shaka's Country','The Ivory Trail','The Hunter is Death' and so on, he also wrote more than 2000 booklets, leaflets and magazine features.He also published books.He was rightly described as the "Doyen "of  African travel  writers.
I shall concentrate on his books and below you will find a list which I am told is incomplete.I will welcome any additions.
I hope from time to time to enlarge on the subject of some of the titles which might be helpful in identifying a particular genre.

T.V.BULPIN.......PUBLISHED BOOK LIST.(Probably incomplete)

THE IVORY TRAIL
LOST TRAILS ON THE LOW VELD
SHAKA'S COUNTRY
TO THE SHORES OF NATAL
THE HUNTER IS DEATH
ISLANDS IN A FORGOTTEN SEA
TRAIL OF THE COPPER KING
THE GOLDEN REPUBLIC
THE WHITE WHIRLWIND
THE GREAT TREK AND THE ZULU COUNTRY
LOST TRAILS OF THE TRANSVAAL
TO THE BANKS OF THE ZAMBEZI
LOW VELD TRAILS
DISCOVERING SOUTHERN AFRICA
TICKEY: THE STORY OF A CLOWN
SOUTHERN AFRICA: LAND OF BEAUTY AND SPLENDOUR
SCENIC WONDERS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO SOUTHERN AFRICA
STELLENBOSCH
BVAKENYA
TAVERN OF THE SEA


nb. any questions or information or availability of books can be addressed to:- doug. colnic@telkomsa.net