I Recall

"Three generations of Kentridges" is the caption to one of the photographs in this volume of Morris Kentridge's Memoirs:

1. When he retired from Parliament in 1958, Morris was the only MP who had sat in the first Union Parliament.
2. Sydney, Morris's eldest son, became one of the leading QCs of his day.
3. And Sydney's son William's artworks command higher prices than those of any other living South Africa artist.

Born in Lithuania in 1881, Morris's surname was Kantrowitch in honour of his father's and grandfather's eminence as Chazans, or Cantors, in various Lithuanian towns. The family moved first to England and then to South Africa, but Morris's surname was only anglicised to Kentridge after his father and uncles had decided on this change in 1912 as they believed that "Kantrowitch" would not be an advantage for Morris's political career.

The memoirs make a fast, racy read with new names, places and activities in almost every paragraph.

Two-colour dustjacket with a cartoon of the author by Bob Connolly. Blue cloth-boards with gilt-on-black spine lettering. Plain endpapers, xi + 431 pp of text and index + frontispiece and 11 other inserted pp of illustrations on art paper.

CONDITION. The unclipped dustjacket (25s) is chipped and rubbed at all edges and folds, with a loss of 2 cm of material from the top of the spine.The boards are lightly shelf-rubbed and two corners are also rubbed. The binding is tight. The endpapers are sunned in register with the dustjacket flaps. There are ownership stamps on the free endpapers and the title-page. The rest of the contents - text and illustrations - is bright, unmarked and undiscoloured, making this a very good copy, although in a substandard dustjacket.