A literary feast for nature lovers

Patricia McCracken interviews the author of a book on the mighty baobab, and reviews David Attenborough’s latest masterpiece and Angela and Jonathan Scott‘s photographic record of wildlife across the world.

BAOBABS FOR YOUNG AND OLD ALIKE

by Estelle Byrne (Self-published, R310)

Few people have the tenacity to push a project to fruition over four decades and bring out a book at the age of 92. Estelle Byrne’s Baobabs for Young and Old Alike is a charming patchwork of paintings, baobab lore and learning to be shared by parents or grandparents and children.

She shared five thoughts on her life and her book:

• The first baobab

Arriving in Selebi Phikwe, Botswana, from Zimbabwe in 1981, I found it entrancing but very hot. A shapely, elegant baobab began my ‘love affair’ with baobabs.

• Painting landscapes

Accompanied by my three scruffy Jack Russells, I used a bakkie as a mobile studio. I painted landscapes featuring a baobab, and a very tall mine chimney in the distance. Expatriate mine staff wanted these visual memories to take home.

• Asking questions

I became more besotted as I painted and pondered baobabs. Why do the flowers last only one day, and what pollinates them? Are the trees really millennia old?

• A rich life

I used diverse media and styles in my illustrations.

I was an art teacher for more than 30 years and like variety.

I have also been a fynbos artist, started a weekly paper as writer and designer, ran a decorative weaving factory, and been a busy mother of three kids.

• Teamwork

Many people have helped and encouraged me along the way, from my neighbour Marelise van Wyk, who managed to make a book out of my collection of illustrations and information, to Nelson Mlambo, from Cheche near Chipinge, Zimbabwe, who brought me two lovely baobab pods.

Baobabs for Young and Old Alike is illustrated by Byrne, and available from the Botanical Society Bookshop at Kirstenbosch and online at kirstenboschbookshop.co.za. You can phone the society bookshop on 021 762 1621.