Life and Works: Charles Michell.
Richings, G.
Publisher: Fernwood Press (Pty) Ltd ,South Africa (2006). ISBN-10: 1874950814
ISBN-13: 978-1874950813. First Edition. Dark Grey boards with gilt device on the front board & gilt titles on the spine. Landscape format. Hard cover. Near fine / near Fine. Lamination of the dust-jacket rubbed. 224 pp.
In this detailed and meticulously researched account of the life and work of Charles Michell, the first surveyor-general and civil engineer of the South African Cape Colony, author Gordon Richings examines in depth, the many interests and achievements of the man, as well as the essence of the time in which he lived, by referring to unpublished personal diaries, sketchbooks and letters. Born in Exeter, Devon in 1793, Michell showed artistic talent at a young age, but due to family circumstances, joined the British Army and served with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars in Portugal. He came to the Cape in 1829 and for the next twenty years played a crucial role in opening up the Cape interior to economic development and expansion, by designing roads, bridges and mountain passes, including Sir Lowry's, the Houw Hoek, Montagu and Michell's Passes. He also suggested improvements to Table Bay Harbour and designed lighthouses at Mouille Point, Cape Agulhas and Cape Recife in an effort to protect shipping along the Cape's notorious coastline. This first biography of Charles Michell is lavishly illustrated with his sketches, watercolours and engravings of Cape scenery, plants, insects and rock paintings, as well as Cape personalities, maps of the colony and architectural plans - the majority of which are published for the first time. New light is shed on the socio-economic life at the Cape, particularly the Tsitsikamma region of the southern Cape, the Frontier War of 1834-35, as well as on the personalities of Michell's colleagues and contemporaries in England and at the Cape.
About the Author
Gordon Richings, a graduate of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, has had a full and varied legal career in both the private and academic sectors. This has, however, not prevented him from pursuing his interest in nineteenth-century Cape history, a field in which he has published a number of articles. He is also a contributor to the Dictionary of South African Biography and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. His interest in Charles Michell began during his student days in Cape Town and over the years he has assembled a vast body of material from which he has crafted this important addition to the history of the Cape of Good Hope during the first half of the nineteenth century. He now lives outside Taunton in Somerset.
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