Bushveld doctor - C. Louis Leipoldt

Bushveld Doctor is the closest Louis Leipoldt came to an autobiography. It deals with his life as the first Medical Inspector of Schools in the Transvaal, from 1914 onwards, years of pioneering inspection, he wrote, “not likely to be forgotten … I travelled many thousands of miles every year, by rail, in a motor car, and on horseback, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by a school attendance officer to guide me when the roads were not marked on the map.”

Leipoldt’s eye-witness account of an almost lost period of rural South African life, with its pleasures and problems, its achievements and defeats, makes engrossing reading.

Leipoldt was a man of many parts and his importance as a major literary figure in South Africa is undisputed. He is the author of many published works of both prose and poetry, including books on cookery. During World War I he was appointed medical officer to General Louis Botha and accompanied him during the South West Africa campaign. In 1924 he stood as a candidate in the general election for the South African Party. A journalist of some repute, he spent some time as assistant editor of De Volkstem. He also became the first editor of the South African Medical Journal.

Bushveld Doctor is rich with anecdote and insight. Truly a collector’s item, it is as fresh and entertaining today as when it was first published in 1937.