Peter Elliott, the author of this biography, is the great grandson of Sir Thomas Muir; Elliott has used the family connection and his personal archives to write an interesting biography of a now mainly forgotten Cape colonial educational administrator and mathematician. This is an even-handed biography full of appeal and does not shy away from the points of controversy around Muir’s attitudes and how policies of a century ago are to be evaluated today.
Constance Stuart Larrabee was a 20th century photographer of distinction but is not well known in the 21st century. This book sets out to change perceptions. Constance was born in Cornwall in 1914 and following her parents' emigration to Grootfontein in the then Northern Transvaal, grew up in South Africa. She always wanted to be a photographer and for her this was “the one road to take“, but in fact her life took her down quite a few roads. Photography mattered.
Nita Spilhaus by Peter Elliott, published by Peter Eliott, edited by Glenda Younge, Illustrated, 194 pages. Cape Impressionist painters were a small group of Cape artists who lived and worked in the Cape and were prolific and productive in the early twentieth century. In their outdoor scenic paintings they sought to capture the special light and colours of the magical Cape landscape. The portraits are even more interesting.
