Quote of the Day

That evening Mrs Eliot had a brain-wave. She discussed it with Dr Eliot, and as soon as the family were all off to school she took the two little figures which had been with the box of junk out of the china cabinet, and wrapping them up in cotton-wool and tissue paper she took them into town, to a little antique shop into whose windows she had often gazed. She came out without them, beaming, and then she went home and telephoned Mrs. Rivett. ... And then she could hardly wait for the children to come home from school and for Dr Eliot to come home from his patients, but when they all did she dropped her bombshell.

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 14, Jennifer Changes Her Mind.

Quote of the Day

The Eliots stood petrified. This was the end. The parents must have heard that and be putting two and two together. It had never dawned on them that the name of Stella's owner would be blazoned abroad like this. They stood huddled together, not daring to glance at their parents, when Candy, red with exertion and rage, cantered up. She dismounted and faced Jennifer furiously. "Where did you get that pony?" she demanded.

"I bought her," said Jennifer, thinking it was neither the time nor the place to mention the younger ones' hand in the affair. "She's mine."

"She's mine"" cried Candy. "You stole her! She's Socks!"

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 13, The Gymkhana.

Quote of the Day

"Where is Nile Road, please?" he said.

"Oh, you've passed it," said Mike, who loved directing people. "Turn up that road just there, and then take the second on the left - that's Nile Road."

Perhaps Mike's English voice attracted the old lady's attention; perhaps she wanted a closer look at this extraordinary couple. In any case she suddenly said, "I'll get out, Raphael, while you turn the car. I shall buy some peaches after all."

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 9, Looking After Stella.

Quote of the Day

Meantime the winter passed and the rains came. Jennifer's lips stopped cracking with the dryness; the gardens burst out into a blaze of colour; a dull, spindly little tree in the front garden suddently put forth clusters of yellow flowers with long red tails which were called birds of paradise; the coarse leaves in front of the wall were beautified by the tall agapanthus, the blue African lily.

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 9, Looking After Stella.

The Dumbarton Castle

In Venture to South Africa, the Eliot family set sail on the Dumbarton Castle and the story gives full details of their voyage. Jane Shaw based the trip on her own journey to South Africa. When her husband took up a post as an accountant in Johanessburg, the Evans family sailed to Cape Town on the Warwick Castle. The Eliots played deck games and made friends with Candy and Peter Rivett, who would show up again later and play an interesting role in the plot. Venture to South Africa is considered the most unusual book that Jane Shaw ever wrote, and you can read a review of it by clicking here.

Quote of the Day

By this time they had circled round Tugela Road, along Congo Road, and were about to come down Orange Road to Nile Road. A very ragged native boy leading a pony was leaving the road to go across the koppie when Susan rushed at him, barking loudly.

"Susan! Bad dog! Come here!" called Belinda.

Mike rushed up and seized Susan's collar. "It's all right," he assured the native boy, between barks, restraining Susan with difficulty, "she - isn't - savage - really - she only - looks - savage!"

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 8, Enter Stella. Susan, of course, is not Susan Lyle, but the Eliots' Airedale. Both Susans were created around the same time, in the early 1950s. Although only published in 1960, Venture to South Africa was actually written soon after Jane Shaw and her family moved to Johannesburg in 1952. Lutterworth bought it in 1953 but never published it. Her editor at Nelson Publishers purchased the manuscript in the late 1950s and made sure that it was put into book form. 

Venture to South Africa

A very high resolution (200 dpi) scan of the frontispiece of Venture to South Africa. The illustration is of a scene in Chapter 12, Big Game. Ten miles from Skukuza, they come across giraffes, which Belinda claims she wanted to see more than anything, even the lions. By the way, there is no grammatical error in the subtitle. The children discover that people out in the big game parks do not talk about "a lion" or "lions"; instead, they call them simply "lion". The same goes for the other animals, so when you're out in the big game camps, it's correct to say "I saw giraffe".

Quote of the Day

"And he'd clap us in irons and batten us to the hatches and keelhaul us, and make us splice the mainbrace," said Belinda, getting a bit mixed up. The children had caught glimpses of the Captain as he made his round of the cabins each morning and found him a grim and terrifying man.

From Venture to South Africa, Chapter 3, Cheering up Jennifer.

Quote of the Day

Usually Susan heard them, or sensed them, long before they reached the dog-deck and set up a welcoming howl. But today there was no sound from her. The Eliots clattered up the ladder and stopped, aghast, at the top. Susan's kennel was gone!

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 5, The Journey Ends.

Quote of the Day

"Oughtn't he just to have a tiny bit of something if he's starving?" said Mike. "I'm sure I read somewhere that starving people should only be fed a spoonful at a time-"

Before the Elliots could put their scanty views on the treatment of starving horses into operation the pony seized the loaf of bread and polished it off in a wink.

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 8, Enter Stella.

Quote of the Day

We went to Bush-pig's home for lunch that day, and had what is called a braaivleis. We would have called it a barbecue. The Logans' beautiful house led on to a beautiful garden with a tennis court and a swimming-pool in the far distance. Many servants in spotless white suits flitted about and perhaps twenty people had this enormous lunch, steak and chops and sausages cooked on an open fire and salads of all kinds and puddings to finish with made of pineapples and grenadillas.

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 1, The Chance of a Lifetime.

Quote of the Day

"Oh, help," said Jennifer, "what is it this time? Some footling little thing you've got, and you expect us to get all worked up about it. You two are always getting excited about nothing. And do sit up, Mike - you look awful leaning over the table like that."

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 3, Cheering Up Jennifer. We can see that Jennifer really needs cheering up. She's definitely Jane Shaw's grouchiest character.

Quote of the Day

Operation Peach went off without a hitch. As usual Belinda and Mike were awake as soon as the sun began to stream in their windows. They found a big basket in the kitchen and crept out through the yard in their pyjamas, and quickly filled the basket with big luscious ripe peaches, and secreted them in the 'stable'. Really, the only snag was that they forgot that the grass was still wet at that hour of the morning, and they were horrified to discover on returning to their rooms that the legs of their pyjamas were soaking wet.

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 9, Looking After Stella.

Quote of the Day

Next morning Jennifer lay in bed, the sun streaming in her window, and watched the swallows wheeling and swooping in their morning game. They'll soon be going back to England, she thought, and she didn't even feel an ache at the back of her throat. I'll go back - sometime, I'll go back, she thought.

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 14, Jennifer Changes Her Mind.

Quote of the Day

"The south of France would be lovely," said Mrs. Eliot, "if your father could earn a living there. But unfortunately he hasn't a brother there, and a ready-made practice waiting for him to share, as he has in Johannesburg!"

Jennifer let out a wail. "Susan! What about Susan?"

"Really, Jenny," said her mother. "You must not scream like that. I nearly jumped out of my skin. And it's all right, Susan can come with us. I telephoned South Africa House, and there's no quarantine for dogs going from England--"

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 1, The Journey Begins. The Susan in question here is not Jane Shaw's best known character Susan Lyle, but the Eliots' Airedale!

Venture to South Africa illustration

An illustration from Chapter 11 of Venture to South Africa, At Loch Vaal. The Eliots spend the January holidays at Uncle Alec's cottage near the lake. Joseph, the native boy gardener displays the snake he has killed, which is a great thrill to the Eliot children, although snakes on the loose is something that Mrs. Eliot is not too happy about.

Quote of the Day

So at last they were on the road, six people and two dogs and a lot of luggage being quite a load for the new car which, however, seemed to take it in its stride. They left Cape Town and went across a wide plain, where bright autumn leaves still clung to the vines, towards a great range of mountains. They could see the road, going up across the face of the mountains like a scar; but what the Eliots couldn't make out was where it went - it just suddenly seemed to disappear.

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 5, The Journey Ends.

Quote of the Day

"Keep by the door," whispered Mike, through shut teeth, "and if we look like being stuck with the kitchen sink - scoot!"

It proved to be a wildly exciting sort of game, something like Tom Tiddler's Ground, Belinda thought, but with terrible penalties if you were caught. They split up; Belinda and Mike went together, and Jennifer and Eleanor, Eleanor still insisting that she would have nothing to do with it, but eventually carried away by the excitement. They moved about lest the other bidders should spot that the sepulchral voices came from them, but most people were so intent on getting a good bargain that they paid no attention to the four children, more or less crawling about among them. They tried to keep near the door always, but only once had to get away in a hurry when Mike, completely carried away, bid fifteen pounds for a horrible-looking wardrobe that the previous bidder thought she was going to get for three pounds ten.

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 6, The Golden City. The Eliots are making false bids and bumping up the prices at an auction!

Venture to South Africa (Review)

Today, 3 December 2011, is Jane Shaw’s 101st birthday and it seems appropriate that if I’m going to review one of her books on this day, it ought to be Venture to South Africa. This story was originally written and sold to Lutterworth Press, which had recently published her two Moochers stories, in 1953 under the title Venture to Africa. Lutterworth later sold it to Nelson, the publisher of the highly successful Penny books, and it eventually saw the light of day in 1960.

The story chronicles the transition of the Eliot family from their home in a comfortable London suburb to Johannesburg. The central character is fourteen-year-old Jennifer, who from the very beginning detests the idea of moving away from England. But her father’s doctors have told him that his fragile health requires him to live in a drier, warmer climate than muggy London. So, along with her mother, her cousin Eleanor and her little brother Mike (12) and sister Belinda (10), whose nickname is Blinky, they set sail on the Dumbarton Castle.

Three whole chapters are dedicated to the voyage on the ship. Along the way the children enjoy good meals, the swimming pool and games. They meet the Rivett twins, Candy and Peter, who become their new friends, although Jennifer, against everything South African, takes an instant dislike to Candy. They visit their dog, Susan, in the ship’s kennel. And along the way they stop at Las Palmas, where Belinda and Mike try to cheer Jennifer up by getting her a little white puppy and smuggling it on board. Jennifer loves the dog, whom the children name Little Black Sambo, but she is determined not to like South Africa, which they reach a few days later.

Dr. Eliot greets his family in Cape Town. Having managed by good fortune to smuggle Sambo through customs, the family set off for the long drive to Johannesburg. All of the family are impressed by the new country, although some things about Johannesburg surprise them, e.g., people resting on the roadside at lunchtime. Their lives are documented as they find a place to live, schools, a social life, extra-curricular activities, such as riding and swimming, and friends. Regular riding classes and swimming all year round are things that Jennifer finds hard to resist, and it is obvious that she enjoys them, but she has set her mind on criticizing South Africa at every opportunity. She deliberately gets bad marks at school and picks fights with the other girls in her class whenever they mention British rule.

But the family in general, even Jennifer (secretly), love the visits to the Game Reserve and Loch Vaal, all lovingly described. They enjoy braaivleis, a South African form of barbecue. The younger children happily adopt the local dialect, with words like dabby and gee. Jennifer, of course, refuses to make use of this “ridiculous” form of speech. Mike and Blinky, in their last desperate attempt to improve Jennifer’s mood, buy her a pony from a ragged native boy, with inevitable disastrous consequences. At Christmas they love shopping in Johannesburg and comparing Christmas in the blazing hot sun of South Africa with the festive season back in the freezing United Kingdom. But the underlying theme of Jennifer’s misery permeates the whole story, and in the end even her family tire of her attitude until there is a dramatic showdown between her and her mother that apparently opens her eyes at last.

Like all Jane Shaw stories, this one is well plotted and very consistent in characterization. The descriptions of South Africa are detailed but not overstretched to the point where the reader becomes bored by them. There is the usual comedy and carefree banter between the children and lots of excitement as the new vistas of life in another country are revealed and the family have to adapt to the ways of others and learn to respect them. We learn a great deal about South Africa in the same way that we learn about Brittany in Breton Adventure and Switzerland in Crooks Tour and Susan Interferes, more so as a matter of fact, as the other books are not quite so rich in detail. There is also drama when a lion sits on the bonnet of the Eliots’ car and when Jennifer is confronted by Candy after a gymkhana in a dispute over her pony.

However, there are also differences. This book is one of only four single titles (the others being The House of the Glimmering Light, The Crew of the Belinda and Crooks Tour) in the Jane Shaw oeuvre. And while most of her characters happily blunder along, this story is perhaps the only one where we see a leading character in absolute misery (even for Belle in Susan's Helping Hand things turn out well in the end). It is also unusual in that the ending is not such a happy one. Jennifer reaches the end of the story in a reflective mood and with thoughts that are not exactly joyful; in fact they are quite solemn. That is not to say that there have not been other books where not all has ended well for the main characters. Let us take a look at the closing lines of Susan Muddles Through, when Aunt Lucy receives a letter from Selina Gascoigne:

Darling Gabrielle has been so happy with Midge and Susan that I think it would be nice for them to see more of her. So I have written to their headmistress in Kent to ask if she can squeeze Gabrielle in next term… I’m sure Miss Phillimore will find a place for her. Tell Midge and Susan, I know they’ll be pleased.

Is this a “happy” ending for Susan and Midge? Of course not. But the reader laughs, imagining the conflicts and comic situations that lie ahead. Let us also consider the end of New House at Northmead:

To have restored his picture to Lord Claire was some consolation. There weren’t many others; for in the end-of-term results New House came bottom in every House competition with unfailing regularity.

“Gosh, it’s bad,” said Nicky. “Bottom in everything.”

“Never mind,” said Kay, joyfully throwing clothes, shoes, books into her trunk, “next term we’ll fix it.”

Again, the girls have worked throughout the story to make something of New House and failed miserably. But now they’re off on holiday without a care and the reader doesn’t feel sorry for them. Quite a contrast to Jennifer’s final thoughts in Venture to South Africa as she accepts that living in South Africa isn’t so bad after all but she can’t help pining for her homeland.

What also sets this book apart from the rest is that it is clearly the most autobiographical of Jane Shaw’s works. Jennifer Eliot’s initials, J.E., might also stand for Jean Evans (in 1937 Jean Patrick married Robert Evans). Jennifer went to South Africa because of her father; Jean Evans went because of her husband. The story was written in 1952-53; Jean Evans moved to South Africa in 1952. Jennifer sailed on the Dumbarton Castle; Jean Evans sailed on the Warwick Castle. Jennifer never gives up her dream of returning to Britain; neither does Jean Evans. When Robert retired in 1978, their first move was to return to Scotland, setting up house on Arran. Of course, other books of Jane Shaw’s were based on trips she had made. Highland Holiday is a return to her youthful days holidaying on Arran. The trips to Switzerland that feature in her stories follow routes she took with friends and family and on her honeymoon. But all her other characters returned home and none of these books have such a personal feel about them as does the story of the Eliot family. Jane Shaw learned to love South Africa and it was used as a location in three other stories: Fivepenny Mystery, the opening of which is set in Johannesburg; The Matchmakers, a short story published in the Collins Girls’ Annual 1960; and Nothing Happened After All, the second Dizzy and Alison novel. Jennifer’s story is also told in reverse in New House at Northmead, when Lynette has trouble adapting to England after spending most of her life in Rhodesia.

I enjoyed Venture to South Africa a great deal and highly recommend this realistic and honest story, which provides some insight into the feelings of Jane Shaw herself as she underwent the experience of leaving everything behind to go overseas at a time when travelling to South Africa took weeks rather than hours and visits home were few and far between. An excellent story, and I give it nine out of ten.

Quote of the Season

And all this time Christmas was rapidly approaching; the shops broke out in a perfect rash of reindeer and tinsel, Christmas cards appeared on the counters, and the schools broke up for the long summer holidays. Dr. and Mrs. Eliot had told the family long ago that there would be no seaside holiday this year, but Uncle Alec had promised them the cottage at Loch Vaal for as long as they liked; and also a visit to the Kruger National Park was promised, although all their friends objected that it was not the proper season; so these were delights to look forward to when Christmas was over.

From VENTURE TO SOUTH AFRICA, Chapter 10, Christmas Holidays.