The Road through the Grove friendship and adventure along Louis Botha Avenue, Johannesburg, in the 1950s, '60s and '70s

Published by Redsky Publishing, 2016, hardcover, illustrated, index, 272 pages, condition: basically as new.

This is a large book with a big, warm heart. It is a book celebrating life and friendship of a generation of (mainly) men in a cluster of north eastern suburbs of Johannesburg in the decades of the 50s, 60s and 70s of the last century. It is a book about growing up and coming of age, of the trials and tribulations and fun of being young. Suddenly the second half of the 20th century is now history and Burgess is to be congratulated on taking on this massive project to put together this extraordinary album of photographs of the friends and moments of his youth. It must have been a labour of love to locate all the images from classic bikes to holiday snap shots, from useful household items of the fifties to great homes.   

The theme of the book is the life stories of many young men who bonded at school and on playing fields of their youth. Male bonding for a variety of reasons (those muscular testosterone packed moments on the rugby scrums of the single sex boys high schools, those drinking sessions at the Radium Beer Hall) made for lifelong friendship and later business networks. Here is a rich vein of memories and youthful adventures; there are thumb nail biographies and snippets of memories of those boys, chums, jocks, mates, toughs, bikers, goodfellas of the Grove and other suburbs (how did you join the Good fellas? certainly I dont think the girls were admitted). Girls feature, but mainly as wives, mothers and girlfriends of the boys. This is a book produced by a male for fellow males. The end paper pages comprise a montage of profiles of the people who mattered to John Burgess.

A LARGE COFFEE TABLE BOOK