Extraordinarily similar woodpeckers in South America and Africa? And not only woodpeckers: other bird families across a wide range, as well as quintessentially African trees native across South America, from Ecuador to Paraguay. How could this be?

In general, lives of noteworthy accomplishment are led by people with an obvious talent, or more than one. Occasionally, though, someone with no discernible gift whatsoever may distinguish him or herself with a remarkable life. Such cases invite the question of how? How did it happen? With age I have realised that mine is such a life, and, inevitably, I have asked that question. It may happen in cases like this that, as one searches for an answer, one looks for precedents: or even for gifts not inherent in oneself but from outside. I did neither: it came to me unbidden. As I sang, the lines in the hymn resonated so powerfully I could not get away from them: ‘As noiseless let Thy blessings fall as fell Thy manna down.’ That was it. Unobtrusively I had been blessed – again and again and again.

A dozy, unsocialised child follows a boringly ordinary course through life until gradually things start to work out for him in increasingly extraordinary ways. The only prize I ever won at school was the Natural History Prize, no academic accolades or colours for any sport. I was rewarded for loving undemanding nature; almost a non-prize. Nearly fifty years later, in a small town I had never visited before I was introduced to the author of a slim volume on the geography of the area. “Not THE Nick Norman,” she asked. I might have blushed. In 1987, aged 42 I had married, and gone on to father two children, one now a top lawyer, the other on a similar trajectory in medicine. Having dreamt of being a farmer, I owned a farm in Franschhoek, which put me in about the most envied group of people in South Africa. After a successful career in mineral exploration in Africa and South America I turned my hand to writing about geology in a way accessible to lay readers. Three best-sellers followed. The Red Sea opened up and the River Jordan stopped flowing, for the Israelites to reach their land of milk and honey. In between, though, there were 40 years in the wilderness.

This is my narrative. Yours will be different. Unpack it and you will find blessing after blessing. See how I found mine.

Geological journeys - a traveller's guide to South Africa's rocks and landforms is an essential companion for car journeys. For those who wonder about the jaunty tilt of a mountain ahead, the unusual patterns of a road cutting, the colour and texture of the roadside soil, or the purpose of a distant minehead, this volume offers answers and explanations about features along all the major routes across South Africa, and some of the lesser, but geologically interesting, routes too.

Also included are the three main metropolitan areas – Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban – so that city residents can understand the geological features surrounding them. Using familiar landmarks to pinpoint sites and subtle phenomena, the authors bring to light our rich geological heritage, its likely roots and often tumultuous history.

Along the way, they also discuss the historical background, personalities and stories that relate to the landscape.

Geology off the beaten track follows on the success of author Nick Norman’s earlier Geological Journeys (co-authored with Gavin Whitfi eld), which has sold more than 20 000 copies in the last 6 years. This new book helps readers understand and interpret the geology along SA’s regional and other less-travelled roads.

- It features 13 detailed routes across the country, taking in geologically interesting areas such as the Richtersveld,Cape winelands and the Valley of Desolation near Graaff-Reinet.

- The text is richly illustrated with photos and explanatory diagrams, making it suitable for armchair travellers too.

- Maps for all the routes indicate key geosites, with GPS readings to pinpoint their location.

This is a must-have handbook for travellers in the region, or for anyone wanting to know more about our rocks and landforms.

True Colors (or, Affirmations in a Crisis) is a chronicle of survival by trailblazing artist Zora J Murff. Murff constructs a manual for coming to terms with the historic and contemporary realities of America's divisive structures of privilege and caste. Since leaving social work to pursue photography over a decade ago, Murff's work has consistently grappled with the complicit entanglement of the medium in the histories of spectacle, commodification, and race, often contextualizing his own photographs with found and appropriated images and commissioned texts. True Colors continues that work, expanding to address the act of remembering and the politics of self, which Murff identifies as "the duality of Black patriotism and the challenges of finding belonging in places not made for me-of creating an affirmation in a moment of crisis as I learn to remake myself in my own image." Nuanced, challenging, and inspiring, True Colors (or, Affirmations in a Crisis) is a must-have monograph by a rising and standout artist. True Colors is the result of the inaugural Next Step Award, a partnership between Aperture and Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York, with the generous support of 7G Foundation. An exhibition of the work will open at Baxter St in New York in November 2021.

Well-known geologist Nick Norman leads young readers into the absorbing world of geology. Budding rock collectors will find out all about the rocks that they’ll encounter in southern Africa, with a view to building their own rock collections.

Box of Rocks is packed with fascinating information about:

- how rocks form

- how to identify the different rock types

- what rocks are made of

- what different rocks are used for

- where to go to collect each rock type.

Readers will also learn about Stone Age tools, fossils and some of our best-known geological sites.