THE SECRET LETTERS OF JAN VAN RIEBEECK - Translated and edited by Robert Kirby (Satire)

Paperback in good condition.  Published 1992.

About the Author:  Long-time Mail & Guardian columnist Robert Kirby now deceased was a significant satirist especially in the 1970s, Kirby also worked as a broadcaster, television columnist, playwright and novelist.
Born in Durban, Kirby was educated there and in Kimberley. He was employed at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in Johannesburg, and in London as an announcer for the BBC.

He became famous in South Africa for his sharp wit and fearless satire, often aimed at the government of the day, the SABC, politicians and other media figures -- especially in his weekly column in the M&G called Loose Cannon."You can't have humour without offending somebody. Every joke offends somebody down the line. Humour that didn't plunge the knife into somebody's ribs would be terribly pale, vapid, weak," Kirby once said.

In the 1970s, Kirby "was as well-known then as Pieter-Dirk Uys is now known for a similar brand of humour", said Matthew Krouse, arts editor of the M&G, at the weekend.

"He was outspoken to the degree that he was reviled by some and adored by many, particularly liberal-minded whites who saw the lighter side of apartheid," Krouse said. "He got up the noses of many people in the entertainment industry and continued to do so right until the end."

The Secret Letters of Jan van Riebeeck comprised more satire in the form of a series of imaginary letters written in the 1650s by Van Riebeeck, the first colonist of the Cape

This then is The Secret Letters of Jan van Riebeeck, written by Robert Kirby and based on a publication in 1992 of a set of entirely imaginary letters by Van Riebeeck. The letters were taken seriously by an academic at Botswana University who published a learned essay on them in the prestigious Journal of Southern African Studies … But that’s another story!