Title: The Fiercest Heart
Author: Stuart Cloete
Publisher: Fontana Books
3rd impression. London and Glasgow, 1973
Original softcover, 11x18 cm, 317 pages
Satisfactory. Cover with few traces of usage, interior clean.
This is the story of a group of Boer trekkers, who abandoned the safety of their flourishing farms, driven by dislike of the British and the need to discover a new Canaan. The region is the heart of South Africa; the time the 1830's; and the pioneers are led by the redoubtable Oom Willem Prinsloo, taking with him his enormous sister-in-law, Tannie Maria, and his orphaned granddaughter, Cina. Once launched into the vast sea of grass and hills they had to arrive at their unknown destination, or die on the road, victims of the many dangers that surrounded them. The Fiercest Heart is the story of their adventures and of how they overcame the obstacles that confronted them: brutal, bloodthirsty Zulus, flood, fire and treachery. It is also the story of Cina, who in the course of the trek finds out what it means to be a woman.