Panther Head. The Story of the South African Bird Islands

This new book by one of South Africa\'s favourite authors covers a century and a thousand miles of wild coastline. It is the story of the South African bird islands and the guardians of the birds - some of the most remote men and women in southern seas.

Against these lonely lives is a grim background of old buried treasure and sudden death, shipwreck and looting - a strange tale that has never been told before. Strange characters, too, appear on almost every page. Perhaps the strangest of all is Black Sophie, who kept a seamen\'s boarding-house in Cape Town and gave her name to an island.

There was a time, during the most severe shipping slump of last century, when these guano islands saved many Liverpool shipowners from bankruptcy. Thousands of men from hundreds of ships fought, rioted and finally removed the great wealth of guano which had been piled up by the birds throughout the years.

This book tells the whole story and gives a vivid picture of life on these fascinating isles today. It is richly illustrated with the author\'s own photographs.

Hardcover with clipped dustcover-Frontispiece with 256 pages text with eighteen illustrations and three maps. Small front dustcover crease and protected in loose mylar cover.Very clean copy.