The cricket matches between die Proteas and England Friday (27/01) and Sunday in Bloemfontein, brought interesting people to town.
One of them is writer and public speaker, known for his wonderful book on the history of cricket, Empire War & Cricket in South Africa: Logan of Matjiesfontein, Dean Allen.
He published the book in 2015. Empire, War & Cricket in South Africa explores in detail how Matjiesfontein was developed. It is the untold story of how James Logan was instrumental in developing the game of cricket in South Africa at a time when the country was heading towards war with the British Empire.
At a special meeting of the University of the Third Age (U3) held at the Synagogue in Dan Pienaar on Friday, he introduced his newest publications – volume 1 and 2 of Frontier Land on travels and history of the Eastern Cape.
Born in Somerset in England, Dean came to study at the University of Stellenbosch in the 1990’s.
As a motivational speaker and writer, his unique blend of story-telling and his interest in history took him around the world.
He returned to South Africa often and after he and Danica Stanova – now his wife – got stuck in South Africa because of the onset of Covid-19 in 2020, they absolutely fell in love with South Africa. “We planned to stay for three months and ended up spending the best six months of our lives being stuck because of the pandemic in Wilderness. It really forced us to slow down,” he says.
“In this time I realised South Africans is my kind of people.”
Dean calles himself a messenger, rather than a historian.
“When visiting towns in the Eastern Cape, I realised that this really is Frontier Country with so much history and interesting people. It is one of the most varied provinces in the country.”
In these books he writes about well known and less known sites and places of interests. In volume 1 this includes places like Grahamstown (Makhanda) which he calls the cathedral city, the Egg Rock, the ‘chiled-out’ farmstall Daggaboer and Cradock where they spent months doing research.
Dean and Danica also writes a daily column This Day in History and also compiled a book with these entries.
Frontier Land is a wonderfull addition to gather information for your next road trip to the Eastern Cape.
And yes, Dean Allen is a keen supporter of the Proteas. Maybe that is why the Proteas excelled in this weekend’s international one day cricket matches against England.
- Readers stand a chance to win volume 1 and 2 of Frontier Land. Go to the Bloemnuus Facebook Page on Monday (30/01) and answer a question from this article to stand a chance to win.
- Read more on his publications by visiting his Facebookpage Dr Dean Allen – Author Speaker Historian.
