JUST BEFORE DARK: Stories from a land of lost content

We are delighted to introduce our new book in short stories category: JUST BEFORE DARK: Stories from a land of lost content by Perry Leary. Just Before Dark is an edited collection of his best South African stories, taken from these earlier publications. The stories describe events that took place at his school and university and later during his days as a medical-school professor and minor member of the English-speaking establishment in South Africa.  People of other races are described with affection and sympathy, tinged with annoyance and disappointment at what has developed since the advent of universal suffrage. Readers might not know that, during the three decades preceding the end of autocratic rule by the white Nationalist party, South Africa was one of the world’s top 15 trading nations and supplied electricity and food to most of southern Africa with the possible exception of Rhodesia. The country had world-class schools of medicine and engineering, a first-rate national airline and an infrastructure to boast of that included an excellent railway network, postal services, fine roads, rubbish and sewage disposal and an incorruptible judicial system. It was of that time that the author writes. Everyone could have and should have done far better than they did. Nevertheless, whilst there was much to criticise during the era of white domination there were also lessons to be learnt that still apply to this day. The author has attempted to strike some sort of tolerant and good humoured balance in recording experiences that are now no more than part of his family history. Available on Amazon in Kindle and printed edition: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0D7WFCVZB/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.hBpkJB3JwXHt8zwnn8qiEhtr8xRmCafY3ccdhCuXwgbLP-8r_a11cOYWjKZniL00ragt3Nkd-aH8jKiQuJixVlKBAmSQPj6T0oZqDWGqA14B1d8Ivsn2E_wuVO1pB4Ik9-tUSJAPrR3hMaF4ZUEIdtxJvdZsV_SeCV1vqJ0QQsWJfY-SAbrDsadL8yMM0ACLCDEPcRu-SQInINGcZvEn0TME8ZTgZox7bkV9hkEzOGc.WUlSWdzamMHpGPT1YV9xwv9iQPU9QK2IHGskcNvRuis&qid=1719305078&sr=1-4