Sugar Girls & Seamen has just started coming off the printing press, so now the publisher and distributor are busy getting it to South African book shops. Hopefully soon it will also be made available in the UK, Europe and the US (and the various Amazons).

But until that time, South African newspapers have been warming interest by publishing a series of excerpts from the book, offering sneak peeks into the dockside nightlife. One of the best examples came from the Weekend Argus in Cape Town which published a snippet about me ("Raised on the lure of the sea and port life") and the opening to one of my favorite chapters in the book ("Cunning Linguists"). Click on the image on the right to enlarge.

Reviews

"adamantine research and thoughtful analysis...brilliant and detailed"
- Sunday Times

"gloriously accessible...arresting...eye-opening"
- Tonight

"provocative...powerful...thoughtful and engrossing"
- Sunday Independent

Other Comments

My mother: "You wrote a book about what?!" (long sigh)

Friend: "So they're actually gonna publish your 'research'?" (he raised his fingers to put the term "research" in quotes)

Nicky the Greek (one of the dockside club owners in the book): "Henry, why on earth would you choose to write about this topic? I can't imagine anyone who would want to read about it. I've been in this business for thirty years and not even I would want to read about it!"

...uh, maybe I should have picked more flattering responses. I'll work on getting some...