The coronation of Britain’s King Charles III was a highlight for Hermanus resident Shiloh Noone.
Not only does he have a close connection with the royal house through the late writer and philosopher Sir Laurens van der Post (who enjoyed a long friendship with the king and was godfather to his son William, now Prince of Wales), but one of his books was also presented to the king.
The Cape Talk radio presenter, largely an enigma to the world of book publishing, again slams dead-centre with a triple-whammy USA release, Swimming With Salamanders (Fifty tales of the in-between), a Gothic novel Witches of Sark and a poetry book, Forty Two for the Chosen Few.
Little more than two years ago, at the peak of Covid, Noone from Hermanus, released A Bicycle, a Chess Set, an African River, top seller at Cavendish and Somerset Mall Exclusive Books, outpacing Wilbur Smith’s new book for a solid six months.
This book enjoyed a resurgence earlier this year when Van der Post’s daughter Lucia wrote a stirring review of the novel, which has now been included in the American print-run of Noone’s works.
He certainly didn’t hobnob with royalty to achieve this acclamation, but his colourful history includes an early expedition into the Kalahari with Van der Post. Noone explained how he would bring him ice cream, while he lay in the Springbok clinic while the nuns tended to him after his ill-fated four-month experience with the San, when his legs were paralysed for two months.
“Oom Laurens” was obsessed with Shamanism and all questions around it, for many a taboo subject.
It didn’t come as that big a surprise to Noone when he learned his novel had been given to King Charles some six weeks ago. He considered it quite understandable, as Lucia and Charles are extremely close. “It was really about association and history,” he says, “as Charles had ventured into the Kalahari in 1987 with Oom Laurens, and I was ousted at the last moment due to two Land Rovers taken over by British intelligence’s MI6.” . Noone will launch Swimming With Salamanders (Fifty tales of the in-between), Witches of Sark and Forty Two for the Chosen Few on 26 May at the Hermanus Sports Club at 18:30. There will be a few poetry readings, a vintage Land Rover display, a radio podcast interview, Brigitte Weaving reading the Lucia van der Post review and Noone revealing secrets from the inner sanctum of the San never heard before.
