1965 large format hardcover with 114 pages and extra 57 plates in good condition. The dust jacket has wear around edges.

"This book is the story of the settlement of South Africa as revealed in its homesteads, whether mud hut or ornate mansion, in its churches, in its villages and in the everyday life of the men and women who struggled against great odds to develop a new country where they could start life afresh.  The culture of South Africa owes much to the countries from which the first settlers came but during three centuries it has been modified to such an extent to suit the new conditions that to-day it is as typical as the culture of any country and its folk architecture, especially in the Cape, is one of the richest in the world."

James Walton was born in Yorkshire in 1911. Studied at London and Leeds Universities. He served in Burma and India during the Second World War before emigrating to Lesotho in 1947, where he was Deputy Director of Education until 1960. In recognition of his work there he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Thereafter he lived in Cape Town and until his retirement he was Managing Director of the publishing house of Longman Southern Africa. He is well known for his pioneering studies of the vernacular architecture of many countries in Africa, Europe and the Far East. A founder and an Honorary Life Member of the Vernacular Architecture Group in Britain, he is also Honorary Life President of the Vernacular Architecture Society of South Africa, of which he was a founder member.