The overwhelming success of My Mother's Kitchen was a Baobab, now in its third printing, was the reason for writing A Brick and a Tickey High. The stories centre around the author's grandfather in the land across the Limpopo River. This is another autobiographical romance. The book goes back in time to a wilder and freer age. Again the stories are all factual. The campfire was the traditional meeting place in the evenings after a day's work. Many were the occasions the author, then a lad “a brick and a tickey high,” would sit with the old man round the fire and listen to these stories. Through the ensuing years there was this desire by the author to record these events of a time and an age that now no longer exists. He remarks in his Introduction to the book. “Walter de la Mare worried in his Epitaph about the most beautiful lady that ever was and who would remember her when he crumbled. In a similar way who will remember the way of life that existed north of the Limpopo River when we crumble, unless we put pen to paper.” These stories have to be written down, stories of trials and tribulation, hilarity and sadness. It was a time when a person was measured by the strength of his body, his fitness, his ability to withstand extreme hardship and a thousand other related conditions. It was a simple, wholesome and satisfying life; a group of people with a great sense of dignity, honour and justice and with tremendous bonds of friendship. As the author remarks, “These simple stories are treasured memories for me and should someone else acquire something out of them that would have made the effort all worthwhile.” A Brick and a Tickey High is an enjoyable read.

Sylvia Wright