Magnates, memoirs, meals and murder

Patricia McCracken reviews an impressive biography of Harry Oppenheimer, a recipe book-and-memoir, a thriller set in the Australian winelands, and an entertaining frolic in the English countryside.

Harry Oppenheimer: Diamonds, Gold And Dynasty by Michael Cardo (Jonathan Ball, R350)

This magisterial, 526-page biography reminds us of the politics of the past, the time when white South Africa was divided between the Nats and their fiery opponents, the Progs.

At the heart of the mining economy was the colourful and pleasantly adroit character of Harry Oppenheimer, son of the equally influential and wealthy Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, who came to South Africa in 1902 after the Boer War, when English capital, and in particular, Anglo-American and De Beers, ruled supreme.

This must be regarded as a benchmark biography of an influential South African businessman, industrialist, mining magnate, active politician and bibliophile. It weaves family asides and gossip into the more serious machinations of white politics through the greater part of the 20th century, and the influence and impact of Harry O, King of Diamonds.

Cape Malay Cooking: My Story, My Heritage by Fatima Sydow (Human & Rousseau, R400)

Sydow’s publishers call her ‘a national treasure’, and her gift for combining perfectly balanced comfort food with a sense of heart and home are certainly on full display in this impressive recipe collection interwoven with touching memoir. She divides Cape Malay

Cooking into five sections, all blending celebration with heritage: My Beloved Family, Memories of Ramadan, the joy of Labarang, Weddings, and Festive Fun.

Sydow might take you out of your comfort zone, with honey-glazed ox tongue sosaties that mix a modern taste for glazing and flame. At other times, the recipes, such as her irresistible custard biscuits, are familiar ‘comfort food’.

Often the recipe titles, such as brown stew and mealies with butter, give little clue to the layers of flavour and memory that Sydow offers.

A food experience that you will want to share.

Exiles by Jane Harper (Macmillan, R340)

Australian wine country is deservedly renowned for its breathtaking landscapes. Since the quarry at Marralee has been filled up with water, the cliff above has become a renowned beauty spot, but also a place of danger, where two deaths have occurred in just a few years.

As visitors converge on the town for its wine festival, teenager Zara leads a campaign to jog their memories about the night her mother went missing a year earlier. Among the crowd is Aaron Falk, a police investigator of financial crimes, who is visiting friends in town. He is also more than a little interested in Gemma, the festival organiser, but Zara’s appeal raises memories of her late husband whose car had spun off the clifftop some years earlier.

In a realistic mix of friend reunions and readjustments with stealthy plotting, Harper makes the town rethink the truth about the two deaths. Excellent characterisation and settings.

One Enchanted Evening by Katie Fforde (Century, R330)

Fforde goes retro, whisking us back to the mid-1960s, into an era where English country hospitality has changed little since the Second World War. Meg arrives in the pretty county of Dorset to help her mother at an old house turned into a hotel – but only just, as it lacks features such as en-suite bathrooms.

Meg had been expecting to spread her culinary wings a little by preparing highclass but simple food with quality local ingredients to help improve the image of the struggling hotel. However, there is strong competition from a brand-new local hotel with all the mod cons.

Then, to her shock, she discovers that the head chef there is the son of the proprietor of the hotel where she’s working, and he expects to call the shots in ‘her’ kitchen.

Unfortunately, Meg’s inspired cooking isn’t backed by professional training, and clashes are inevitable. A winning evocation of an era.