Search Results: Humour from Christison Rare Books, IOBA SABDA

(Durban: Monty Wilson, [1942]). 180 x 132 mm; side-stitched pictorial card wrappers; pp. (iv) + 59 + (i); illustrations. Wrappers browned and foxed; earlier owner's name to upper cover, which is chipped at top fore-corner; occasional fox spot. Good condition. These sketches, which first appeared in the pages of Durban's "Daily Tribune" and "Daily News", would probably be considered in poor taste by a modern readership. "It is some years since I first met the creator of the Botshongweni family who have been described as the most famous residents in South Africa since Chaka. There, I think, the similarity ends, for the Botshongwenis could hurt no one. Monty Wilson's love of detail and his treatment of the subject that is nearest his heart has endeared him to a great many people in South Africa as well as overseas. They recognise from his drawings, just as we, who are more fortunate in knowing him personally can recognise, a character that still holds a large share of… Read More

(Cape Town: Frederick L. Cannon, 1952). 180 x 122 mm; pictorial wrappers; pp. (x) + 54; cartoon illustrations by Peter Ogilvie. Wrappers tanned; sporadic foxing. Good condition. "History, especially South African history, may be either OBJECTIVE or SUBJECTIVE. If it is OBJECTIVE, it must have an object, such as taking part in quizzes or passing an examination. If it is SUBJECTIVE, it must have a subject, just like a verb. Because we don't like quizzes or examinations, and have always disliked verbs, we have tried to make our history neither OBJECTIVE nor SUBJECTIVE, but REJECTIVE. That is, we reject what we don't want. Our history is different in another way. There is a saying that historians always repeat one another. We have avoided that error and we repeat no other historian. We hope no one will repeat us." .

(Johannesburg: Penguin, 1992). 194 x 128 mm; laminated pictorial wraps; pp. (vi) +151; cartoon illustrations. Wraps very slightly sunned. Near fine condition. 'You don't have to be crazy to stay sane in South Africa. But it helps. Now here's an even easier method. It's called Braaivleis of the Vanities, and it's a sizzling exposé of South African sosatie, featuring practical advice on everything from Shock Treating Your Pool to Barricading Your Suburb to Starting Your Own Volkstaat in another country. If you've ever wondered how to tell the difference between your telephone number and your telephone account, what you have to do to join a rolling mass action campaign, or why the bit of writing on the back of a book is called a "blurb", this is the book you've been waiting for. Packed with handy hints, inside information, and step-by-step interim guidelines, Braaivleis of the Vanities is guaranteed to help you stay sane as you search for your… Read More

(London: Sands & Company, 1902, 5th edition). 8vo; original pictorial tan cloth; pp. 176 + adverts. Light soiling to cloth; regular light browning throughout. Very good condition. 'Up to now, the hundreds - aye, thousands - of columns of epistolatory literature which the ladies of the furbelow press have from time to time indited to "Dearest Maude," have elicited no response from that young lady. How wisely has somebody said that there is no day like Sunday for writing letters, nor Monday for - forgetting to post them! Still, rescued from the oblivion of various ridiculous reticules and writing-cases, here they are, and not the less welcome "Maude" hopes of arriving all together. A.M.B.' .

(Cape Town: Howard Timmins, no date). 8vo; original red boards; pictorial dustwrapper; pp. (x) + 169; cartoon illustrations. Dustwrapper somewhat edgeworn and rather foxed; endpapers and outer leaves rather foxed; some moderate foxing elsewhere. Good. 'The hilarious story of a South African M.P.'s wife, Joyce Waring, volcanic daughter of that fiery man of politics, Arthur Barlow, not warned by the life she had led in her father's house, decided to marry a famous Springbok - then allowed - or shall we say lured - her long-suffering spouse into politics. Here is her side of her troubles in living in a caravan, bringing up children, dealing with her husband's erratic way in which she had forced him to live, her "joys" of moving home every six months ... After the reader has finished laughing himself into a state of coma he will demand a book from the husband - on HIS point of view.' .

(Cape Town: David Philip, 1999). 193 x 240 mm; laminated pictorial wraps; pp. 176. Slightest curl to corners of wrappers. Very good condition. "Madam & Eve is South Africa's most popular cartoon strip. The strip is currently syndicated in 13 publications and read by over 4 million people everyday. Madam & Eve takes a humorous look at the daily lives of two people from very different backgrounds as they experience life in postapartheid South Africa. The strip's main characters have become icons of a changing South Africa, providing light relief through the days of transition to democracy." - from the Madam & Eve website www.madamandeve.co.za .

(London, Geoffrey Bles, 1962). Illustrated by George Adamson. Small octavo, pictorial dustwrapper, pp. 106. Edges lightly foxed. Parody, satire on Apartheid legislation. 'Jan Domm was as upright and noble a specimen of White Man as you could hope to meet. He believed, with a belief even stronger perhaps than that held by the ordinary good citizen, that the Government, all-wise and all-benevolent, could make no mistakes. So when he was re-classified as Coloured, Jan Domm enthusiastically accepted the change in his status and bore its consequences with humility, pride and praise for the wonders of racial discrimination. True, he lost his wife, his children, money, job and sundry physical faculties. But to what a Cause!' .

(Johannesburg: Penguin Books, 1997). 193 x 240 mm; laminated pictorial wraps; pp. 176. Near fine condition. "Madam & Eve is South Africa's most popular cartoon strip. The strip is currently syndicated in 13 publications and read by over 4 million people everyday. Madam & Eve takes a humorous look at the daily lives of two people from very different backgrounds as they experience life in postapartheid South Africa. The strip's main characters have become icons of a changing South Africa, providing light relief through the days of transition to democracy." - from the Madam & Eve website www.madamandeve.co.za .

(London, Jenkins, 1928). Original cloth stained, pp. 312. Front free endpaper removed, light browning, preliminary pages and edges slightly foxed. .

(London: The Bystander, no date). 300 x 215 mm; saddle-stitched wraps with colour pictorial onlay to upper wrap; pp. 44; 37 monochrome cartoons. Staples rusted, a little scattered foxing; wraps and some pages slightly creased. Good condition. Cartoons published during World War I. .

(Bloemfontein: A. C. White, 1929). 8vo; original orange cloth; pp. (xii) + 203. Cover rubbed and lightly soiled; hinges tender; gift inscription to front free endpaper; moderate foxing throughout; archival tape repair to one leaf of prelims. at gutter. Good. 'It is the lot of every writer to have their more recent books compared to their first, and it is a universal fact that they are "not so good". Actually, if you study the matter carefully, it will be found that the later books are just as bad as the first. When somebody once said to a famous editor that his paper isn't as good as it was, he replied, "It never was". One of the difficulties of a scribbler, such as I, is to please everybody. Each year I receive a very large number of letters from readers. Some say that they hope I will write more verse; others hope that I will write less. Some hope that I will continue to write in a light humorous way - others hope that I will write more serious stuff. And here I… Read More

(no place: Transatlantic, no date). 45 rpm vinyl recording in 180 x 180 mm paper sleeve; lacking original printed sleeve; overall running time 6 minutes 31seconds. Good condition. Comedian Wrex Tarr, who died in 2006, was best known for his Chilapalapa series of skits. For many people, his unique brand of humour will always represent the lighter moments in what was essentially an unhappy period in Rhodesia's history. .

(Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1984) 0624022447. 8vo; original papered boards; dustwrapper; pp. (xii) + 113. Dustwrapper very slightly edgeworn, with lower panel rubbed, and tape scars to flaps; gift inscription to front free endpaper; tape marks to free endpapers. Very good condition. Afrikaans text. "Wanneer Jan Spies vertel van 'n leerlingverpleegster se slim planne met 'n emmer vol kunstande of van 'n bobbejaan wat hom spook in die plek van 'n afgestorwe boervrou, van 'n groot-eet in 'n gemsbokpark of 'n oud-stryder se taalprobleem op die paradebaan, slaan hy 'n poort deur die koue van die moderne bestaan. Want in dié stories toon hy dat die lewe meer as kompers, video's en hidro's is, dat mense tóg na mekaar kan uitreik, dat vreugde ook in die eenvoudige te vinde is. Hier wag op die leser die warmte van humor en menslikheid, dikwels met 'n tikkie nostalgie daarby. Poort deur die koue is 'n tweede keur uit Jan Spies se onnabootsbare… Read More

(Cape Town: Tafelberg, 1984) 0624022447. 8vo; original papered boards; dustwrapper; pp. (xii) + 113. Dustwrapper very slightly rubbed; gift inscription to front free endpaper. Very good condition. Afrikaans text. "Wanneer Jan Spies vertel van 'n leerlingverpleegster se slim planne met 'n emmer vol kunstande of van 'n bobbejaan wat hom spook in die plek van 'n afgestorwe boervrou, van 'n groot-eet in 'n gemsbokpark of 'n oud-stryder se taalprobleem op die paradebaan, slaan hy 'n poort deur die koue van die moderne bestaan. Want in dié stories toon hy dat die lewe meer as kompers, video's en hidro's is, dat mense tóg na mekaar kan uitreik, dat vreugde ook in die eenvoudige te vinde is. Hier wag op die leser die warmte van humor en menslikheid, dikwels met 'n tikkie nostalgie daarby. Poort deur die koue is 'n tweede keur uit Jan Spies se onnabootsbare bydraes tot die Afrikaanse radiodiens se vroeëmôreprogram Monitor." .

(Johannesburg: Premier Book Publishers, 1991). 8vo; original blue boards; laminated pictorial dustwrapper; pp. (x) + 172. Dustwrapper very slightly rubbed. Very good condition. "The title of this book was taken from a regular monthly column written for SA Family Practice. Articles published by the South African Medical Journal and the British Medical Journal have also been included. From the case of 'Advanced Eccentricity' to being hypnotised by a sales rep, the author describes both humorous incidents and contentious issues that arise from everyday practice of medicine." .

(no place, Central News Agency, no date). Illustrated by Rex Hudson. 185 x 120 mm; wraps; pp. x + 68. A little browning. "This book is dedicated to that vast army of apes, lemurs, monkeys, chimps, gibbons and thingamybobs, who, recognising a good thing when they see it, have persistently refused to become men, and are still courageously handing out the anthropoid equivalent of a raspberry in exchange for the scientific carrot." .

(Cape Town: Simondium Publishers, 1965). 8vo; original red boards; pictorial dustwrapper; pp. 144. Dustwrapper a little edgeworn, and sunned on spine panel; some foxing to endpapers, dustwrapper, and page edges. Good condition. "Sunrise Over Tanesia is a satire on life in a mythical, newly-independent African state. It is a light-hearted romp concerning a film-unit sent out in all ignorance from Britain to the imaginary and turbulent state of Tanesia to make a documentary film. The film never quite gets made, but the hilarious situations into which the film-makers are projected and the gloriously eccentric characters they become involved with are memorable in the extreme. There are riots and revolutions and counter-revolutions, inept black dictators and crazy, lovable, blimpish remnants of the dying British Raj. ... Sunrise Over Tanesia is rich satire rather in the tradition of Evelyn Waugh's Black Mischief." .

(London, 1963). Dustwrapper slightly rubbed. 'The Times Literary Supplement wrote of the original edition, now out of print: 'There is little enough to laugh about in South Africa these days, but perhaps it takes a poet to find the occasion.' .

(Bloemfontein, A.C. White, 8th edition, 1925). Original paper on boards, a little soiled and worn, tear at the base of the spine, pp. (ix) + 135 + (8: advertisements). Ownership inscription (dated 1939) on the half-title-page, text edges foxed. .