Wine, Women & Good Hope - A history of scandalous behaviour in the Cape

By June McKInnon

Zebra Press, 2015. Firm softcover, 198 pages. Good, clean condition. The cover shows minor signs of use at the corners. Tightly bound and neat.

Wine, women and Good Hope is a romp through the more salacious history of the Cape of Good Hope, where alcohol flowed freely, reputations were frequently in tatters, and sex was on offer to anyone looking to have a good time. Even the likes of Jan van Riebeeck, Cecil John Rhodes and Barney Barnato feature in some of these accounts. The arrival of the Dutch at the Cape in the seventeenth century had far-reaching consequences for its indigenous inhabitants as well as the European settlers, who together have contributed to the mixed heritage of most South African families. June McKinnon uses her expertise as a genealogist to trace the lineages of many well-known family trees and to overturn the notion that those who lived in the past were nobler or had more sense than their modern descendants. Encompassing tales that are both humorous and tragic in their revelations of past misdeeds, this book will give you access to the little-known history of the Cape of Good Hope. A highly entertaining read that offers a fresh and engaging view of life at the tip of Africa.