First official book signing went fabulously! The Book and I were absolutely fantastic, utterly professional and it is the most gorgeous book store! Just what St Francis needed… a wonderful literary oasis!

People came! They were curious, laughed, asked questions, drank wine (grin) and bought copies. Very exciting! There was even a queue for autographs because we were having so much fun chatting to everyone who was buying books!

And so now, 3 weeks after the wedding launch with little publicity, almost 50 books have been sold from book shops across the country. While this might sound ridiculously small, it is appropriate to give you context. In South Africa, less than 500,000 people buy more than three books in a year. As such, in South Africa a first print run for a novel is 1,000 copies. In the UK, this is 3,000 and in the US, 6,000. A best selling novel in South Africa is … wait for it… 700 copies!

So while I’m sure those in the industry could correct my stats (and please do!), this means that my first few sales make me almost 7% of the way to becoming a South African bestseller… and then shortly thereafter an international bestseller! Watch out world, grin.

And so we headed on our honeymoon road trip… magnificently planned by Andrew and absolutely fabulous! We hit the road with the top down, ribbons on the bonnet and provided much amusement to all the toll gate operators!

First stop was The Graskop Hotel, where we stayed in room 23 decorated by the contemporary South African artists Anthony Dalton.  Had FABULOUS Moçambique Portuguese of peri peri chicken and espetadas and the most insanely delicious bata frita at Canimambo Restaurant (you simply have to go if you’re in the area!)… and then headed to Standerton the following day. We arrived at the glorious Die Kliphuis and were promptly escorted to the honeymoon suite (grin). When I mentioned this was most appropriate as we were really on honeymoon, we experienced gasps and the delicious comment: “Why would you honeymoon in STANDERTON!”. Had us tickled!

Day three was a long travel day, and as with the wedding, we took the rain with us. Which is an omen of good luck! It even rained in the Karoo (which is a desert!) where it poured so hard we needed to pull off the roads because we couldn’t see where we were driving! All the farmers we met gave us their blessings too! After a long day filled with spectacular drives and thundering rain, we slept in Bethulie (which we love!) and sat between a sideboard supporting mismatched “stuff” (ostrich egg, tourist pictures of the big 5, candles painted with Guinea Fowl feathers… you get the picture) and a stack of plastic crates containing all the bread for the restaurant and were fed the most enormous meal: the steak covered at least half the plate, and the rest was piled high with salad, vegetables, pasta salad and chips. Karoo portions!

And then another day spent waving at kids waving at the honeymooners and we arrived in the most glorious piece of heaven: Somerset House. We immediately asked if we could stay another day!  And just to make it even more glorious and special, the fabulous and famous Janet Telian of Savoy Cabbage (etc etc) cooked us feasts every night! It was beyond divine! on our first evening, we sat together, just the two of us, husband and wife, and drank Vintage Champagne that Andrew had bought 8 years ago when he was traveling through Champagne, across a glorious expanse of Cape Dutch furniture and we knew that life was good!

And it only got better… because we met some lovely ladies who, like all of us, love LOVE! And they purchased the book and we autographed it! So Myrna (who ironically we discovered used to live next door to Andrew about 35 years ago!), Joan, Vega & Janet joined Anneke as ladies who not only have exceptional taste (grin) but who made this honeymooning author very very happy!

Divine Myrna!

Fabulous Joan!

Inspirational duo: Janet & Vega