South Africa gets its first bookWhile doing research for his doctoratetown in literary tourism, Darryl Earl David, lecturer in Afrikaans at the University of KwaZulu- Natal, came across the international “book town” concept and realized that this could be a means to reverse the economic decline of small villages and towns in South Africa. Here he explains why Richmond in the Karoo was designated the first book town in the country conomic development is a serious and have offered large tracts of agricul- ism – a book town. This concept is a fairly issue for communities that have tural land to city dwellers in search of that recent, and highly successful, addition to suffered decades of rural decline. idyllic country retreat. Small towns and attempts by rural communities to boost Of late, tourism (whether right- villages try to distinguish themselves with tourism, and thereby the local economies. fully or wrongfully) seems to be such special events as trout festivals, mam- According to the International Organi- Epunted as the answer for these communi- poer festivals, biltong festivals, oyster fes- sation of Book Towns (IOB), a book town ties. Thus, farmers now offer accommoda- tivals, witblits festivals, cherry festivals etc. is a small rural town or village of between tion on working farms; other farmers have The list is endless. Not very well known in 500-1500 people, with a high concentra- decided to cash in on the property boom, South Africa is a truly novel form of tour- tion of booksellers, specializing mostly in DARRYL DAVID DARRYL The picturesque historic buildings were one of the factors that contribute to Richmond being chosen as the first book town 34 Village Life No 30 • June / July 2008 second hand and rare and outdated books. The bookshops are often twinned with cof- fee shops, internet cafes, bakeries, cheese or wine shops or with artisan enterprises such as paper production, book design, book illustration and the dwindling art of bookbinding. Some of these bookshops also sell arts and crafts and antiques. Most book town develop around vil- lages of historic significance or of scenic beauty. The most crucial ingredient is cheap property – a rarity in cities. In order to be successful, booksellers must have lots of inexpensive display and storage space, as low overheads form the cornerstone of a profitable business. Many cities may have the number of booksellers to match that of a book town, but they are rarely clustered in one area. Attracting enough DAVID DARRYL booksellers to a rural community creates a critical mass that is irresistible to the bibli- ophile. These bibliophiles have a multiplier effect on the economy, because they are usually discerning tourists with high spending potential. They prefer to stay in guesthouses and bed- and- breakfasts. They pound the streets in search of that special antique that will become the conversation piece at their next dinner. They patronize the local cafe, the quaint restaurants and sometimes even become residents of these towns after exchanging a few months sal- ary with the local estate agent. NK, BREDEVOORT (2) The idea of a book town was coined LEDERI E by maverick Richard Booth, way back N in the sixties. His dream was to create EVELI the largest centre for selling second-hand books in the world. Today, Hay-on-Wye in Wales attracts over a million visitors a year. Booth started the venture all on his own with just one bookshop. Slowly, he PHOTO COURTESY OF bought up the empty buildings in a town whose population was dwindling, and Top: The Medieval town square in turned these buildings into bookshops. Damme, the second book town in Booth always maintained that “a town The Netherlands. It is located only full of books could be an international 5 kilometres from Brugge, known attraction”. Today, his “build-it-and-they- for its canals will-come attitude” has resulted in Hay- on-Wye being home to 38 bookshops, and Above: The selling of books is not Book Towns developing in approximately limited to conventional shops. 25 other regions throughout the world. Open-air bookshelves such as this Some of the more famous European one in Bredevoort, Holland, are book towns are Redu in the French- also found in other book towns speaking part of Belgium, the second oldest book town in the world, which Left: The open bookshelf is most has 23 bookshops. It is situated in the often unattended, leaving it to picturesque Ardennes region, a few min- the customer to help himself and utes away from the principality of Luxem- deposit the required money in some bourg. Damme, the second Belgian book kind of container provided for the town, also happens to be the most pictur- purpose (Bredevoort) esque of the three book towns I visited, and is situated only 5 kilometres from Brugge, (referred to as the “Venice of the North”). Bredevoort is the national book town of The Netherlands, situated about 4 hours from Amsterdam and was host to Village Life No 30 • June / July 2008 35 the first International Book Town Festival in 1998. Other famous book towns of the world are Fjaerland in Norway; Wigtown in Scotland and most recently, Atherstone in England. The IOB has a wealth of research per- taining to success factors for book towns. According to research by Prof Anthony Seaton, there are 17 critical success factors one should consider when selecting a loca- tion for a book town. These factors were extrapolated from Seaton’s research on the factors that contributed to the success of the four most successful book towns in the world: Hay-on-Wye in Wales; Redu in Belgium; Bredevoort in the Netherlands and Becherel in France. In the South Afri- can context, it my be summarized as fol- lows: existing book expertise; scenic appeal of town; historic/cultural attractions of town; property availability; tourism infra- structure; economic importance of book Dr Darryl Earl David with his daughter, ........., at the launch in Richmond town to region; leadership; organisation and speed of implementation; access; Northern Cape. I looked at, amongst oth- with beautiful architecture, an imposing catchment population. ers, Aberdeen and Hofmeyr in the Eastern church which is said has the highest pulpit As one can see from this list, there are Cape; Philippolis in the Free State; Hano- in South Africa. Richmond is also home numerous towns in South Africa which ver, Philips town and Richmond in the to only one of two horse museums in the would satisfy some of these criteria. So Northern Cape. world – the other is in Kentucky, USA. where did I start? My research indicated Richmond, right on the N1, was And like most of the book towns I visited that book towns are projects about rural eventually chosen. At the time, it was a in Europe, Richmond also has an old-age regeneration. Thus, I decided to focus town on the rise with a reasonably devel- home that used to be the town’s hotel. But on the poorer provinces of South Africa, oped tourism infrastructure, good guest- its biggest strength is its position right the Free State, the Eastern Cape and the houses and two restaurants. It is a town on the N1; no other town has this direct DARRYL DAVID DARRYL The Richmond Horse Museum is one of only two in the world 36 Village Life No 30 • June / July 2008 Book Town Richmond was opened in September last year by well-known actor and DAVID DARRYL author, Patrick Mynhardt Richmond A friendly resident of Richmond on her typical Karoo stoep accessibility. And the town has a strong tourism committee – thanks to the inspi- ration of Peter Baker, a former Canadian vet who fell in love with Richmond on DAVID DARRYL his journeys to Stellenbosch to visit his children at university. Here was the type of charismatic, tenacious leader one needs if one is to embark on an undertaking as a national book town. More importantly, though, a book town needs booksellers, and a few people interested in books had already bought property in Richmond (three had previously owned bookshops). And so it was that on the 20 Septem- ber last year, Book Town Richmond was opened by well-known actor and author, Patrick Mynhardt. There were three book- shops: two of them, The Book Orphanage and Bookarooz, are run by Darryl Con- nolly, an ex-Johannesburger who came to Richmond hoping he would find his The Dutch Reformed church reputedly has the highest pulpit in the country muse to help him complete his novel. The Book Orphanage specialises in Afrikaans literature and a growing collection of cof- fee-table books; Bookarooz stocks almost everything. The third shop, Richmond DAVID DARRYL Books and Prints, houses a fine selection of Africana books. A fourth one, called Diesel and Dust Bookshop, opened its doors recently. It is run by Annette Loveday, an ex-Zim- bawean. The next bookstore to be opened will be a Sports Bookshop, in which a SA sports museum will also be housed. Twinned with the bookshop is going to be a sports bar which the owner, John Don- aldson, yet another Johannesburger, plans to name The Tippling Philosopher! We plan to have an annual Karoo Book Festival later in the year. Hopefully, others will be inspired by what they see. n Dr David may be contacted by e-mail at [email protected] The Richmond Supper Klub, a popular local venue Village Life No 30 • June / July 2008 37.