Adventures into the unknown

“JUST before you come to Durban there is a peculiar richness about the landscape. There are sheer kloofs cut into hills by the rushing rains of centuries, down which rivers sparkle; there are the deep greens of the bush as God planted it, while now and again a white house, smiling out at the placid sea, puts a finish and gives an air of homeliness to the scene.”

- MARK LEVIN

THE cover of Stephen Coan's substantial biography on Rider Haggard.

(Supplied)

These lines from King Solomon's Mines are narrated by the hunter-trader Allan Quatermain, who lived on the Berea in a small brick house with a galvanised roof and fruit trees in the garden.

The author was the 29-year-old H Rider Haggard. Published in 1885, his novel was an immediate success and has never been out of print. It quickly engages, pulling the reader into a compelling adventure story akin to Indiana Jones, a character directly descended from Allan Quatermain.

The vivid and lifelike colours of Haggard’s Africa-based novels are derived from the period during which he lived in Natal and the Transvaal between 1875 and 1881. Born in Norfolk in 1856, Haggard was at something of a loose end after completing his schooling. Although his academic career was unremarkable, he did win a prize for “the best descriptive essay”.

In 1875, his father heard that Sir Henry Bulwer, whose family were old friends, had been appointed to the Lieutenant-Governorship of Natal. After a great deal of persistence from Haggard’s mother, Bulwer agreed that young Rider, just 19, could join his staff as an unpaid secretary.

As a consequence, he had to rely on his father for regular financial support while in Bulwer’s employ. He once wrote home apologising for his dependence, but at least “I will cost less than if I had been at home”.

In a new biography,