Gallos Gecko – 9780620394314

Description

Gallows Gecko, written in English in the early 1930s, is an absorbing account of nineteenth century farm life in the fertile Olifants River valley, extending to the local village of Clanwilliam, the mission station of Wupperthal, the majestic Cederberg mountains and the capital city of Cape Town. When one remembers that Leipoldt’s grandfather was the founder of the mission station at Wupperthal in the mountains behind Clanwilliam, that his missionary father became the dominee in Clanwilliam and that Leipoldt himself grew up in Clanwilliam, it is clear that Gallows Gecko imaginatively describes the author’s personal, familial and geographical background, and that there is a strong family-biographical element to the novel. In Gallows Gecko Leipoldt has preserved for all time many wonderful insights into old rural South African lifestyle and culture, clearly cherishing memories from his own youth as well as stories gleaned from others, including his own grandparents.
The attitudes expressed by certain of the characters show just how startlingly modern and ahead of his time Leipoldt truly was, and from the perspective of the twenty first century one can make this judgment with confidence. Gallows Gecko captures the essence of its time and place, and expresses exquisitely the soul of South Africa – her problems, her challenges, her beauty; indeed the “wonderful romance” of the beloved country.