Reading Matters (week 09) 25 February 2025

Two seriously stunning books have flipped across my radar this week.  The Klein Jan Cookbook (Penguin Random House) is a memoir of the tables from his childhood – and mine too! – as well as the story of how he realised his dream of opening a restaurant like no other, in the Kalahari.

There are 150 mouth watering South African home-style recipes ranging from mampoer cocktail with peach jelly; slap pap and biltong fritters; lamb green bean bredie to banana and condensed milk fridge tart.

The photographs and exquisite sketches are all on high-gloss paper, as is the whole book. The restaurant, shot from various angles in differing light, is small and unpretentious. What a gem!

If you’ve not heard of the world’s most famous graffiti artist, Banksy, then stop reading – for I’m about to go on a rave about a new book on him: Banksy’s Lost Works (Batsford/ Jonathan Ball). Full page pictures of his art, much of which has been stolen or painted out, are accompanied by riveting stories about them by author Will Ellsworth-Jones.

The aim of the book is to document some of the key pieces that have vanished and the reasons for their disappearance. These can range from over-zealous town councillors ‘cleaning up’, to greedy thieves who sell them for millions of dollars.  The book’s a treat!

Reading Matters with Sue Grant-Marshall