THE LAST HURRAH, South Africa and the Royal Tour of 1947

386pp., b/we & colour illus., map, paperback, Johannesburg, 2018

From February to April 1947, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, together with Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, travelled across South Africa in the specially commissioned White Train.

"For me, this was the literary surprise of the decade, to be so moved and enlightened by a book about British royals and their 1947 tour of South Africa. In Viney's hands, this apparent non-event turns into a vivid and unforgettable excursion into a world peopled by gracious blue bloods, lovely princesses, bowing colonials and great throngs of Boers and natives, inexplicably cheering the rulers of a kingdom that subjugated their ancestors. Bathed in the fading glow of empire and buffeted by the coming storm of political struggle, Viney's South Africa is a country most of us will barely recognise, teetering on the brink of convulsive change and yet almost united, at least for a moment, by love for a king and queen who weren't really ours. This is a very fine book. It deserves readers." Rain Malan, author of My Traitor's Heart"

Graham Viney is the author pf "Colonial Houses of South Africa" and "The Cape of Good Hope, 1806 to 1872." He runs an international design company.