Jock Of The Bushveld. This item is unavailable.Jock Of The Bushveld

The much-loved classic by Percy Fitzpatrick, available as a limited centenary edition. Jock of the Bushveld, published in 1907, has been read and enjoyed by millions of children and is now a classic among animal stories. It remains as fresh and exciting as it was when it was first written. Since its release in 1907 it has remained a firm favourite in South Africa and has been widely read abroad; it has been printed in many languages including Afrikaans, Dutch, French, Xhosa and Zulu. Jock's owner was a young transport rider in the rugged and colourful days of the Transvaal gold rush. Those were the days when big game roamed the land and each sunrise brought a new adventure. Fitzpatrick first told his children about his adventures with his dog at bedtime. It was his close friend Rudyard Kipling who convinced him to collect the stories and record them in a book. The story of the bull terrier who shared his master's life on the veld has been illustrated with lively sketches by Edmund Caldwell. Fitzpatrick searched for a suitable artist to illustrate the book and settled on the talents of Edmund Caldwell, and he went as far as to take Caldwell to South Africa to see the Bushveld to ensure the authenticity of his illustrations.

Sir James Percy FitzPatrick, KCMG (24 July 1862 - 24 January 1931), or simply Percy FitzPatrick, authored the classic children's book, Jock of the Bushveld in 1907. After his father died FitzPatrick left school to support his family. He arrived in South Africa's Eastern Transvaal goldfields in 1884, where he worked as an ox-wagon transport-rider from Lourenço Marques (Maputo) to Lydenburg and Barberton. Fitzpatrick turned his adventures into bedtime stories for his children. Rudyard Kipling, a good friend of Fitzpatrick, who also took part in these story-telling evenings persuaded him to publish them. The result was Jock of the Bushveld which was first published in 1907 and has since achieved the status of a South African classic. FitzPatrtick gave his collection of wild animal gathered during hunting trips to form the first stock of the Johannesburg Zoo.