Reviewed by the TLS
"To the Fairest Cape undertakes a readable, well-illustrated, accessible and largely chronological account of how Europeans experienced and described the Cape's flora, fauna and indigenous peoples. As a catalogue of this corpus, To the Fairest Cape is useful and well-balanced."
"Following a wide selection of visitors to the Cape, ranging from scientists to missionaries, this ground-breaking study centres in the experience of cross-cultural encounter in the colony covering the period from Van Riebeeck's momentous importation of slaves to the official abolition of slavery in the 1830s. An authority on the European enlightenment and on constitutional law, Malcolm Jack brings exceptional critical resources to bear on a body of writing that is uniquely rich and full of implication. Crammed with new insights, and enlivened by arresting detail, this is a book that will appeal to the general reader as much as to the scholar." - Peter Knox-Shaw, author of Jane Austen and the Enlightenment
"Anyone interested in travellers' accounts will want to read Malcolm Jack's lively and well-researched discussion of how visitors, from the Portuguese in the late 15th century to Lady Herschel in the 1830s, viewed the Cape and its people. Along with the sometimes colourful accounts the travelers gave of what they saw as the exotic landscape, fauna and flora of the Cape, Malcolm Jack focuses on their perceptions of the indigenous Khoisan, perceptions that helped shape the way the early colonial society developed." - Chris Saunders, Professor of History Emeritus, UCT
"Malcolm Jack identifies three broad themes in the history of travel literature to the Cape: the Adamastor myth invented by the Portuguese epic poet de Camoens; the myth of Paradise Lost and of the Noble Savage (a preoccupation of French writers); and the Arcadian image created by British colonial diarists transported by the beauty of the unfamiliar land. To guide the reader Malcolm Jack has chosen a select number of these adventurous authors. He charts their experiences and records their anecdotes and insights - subjective insights seldom to be found in the pages of conventional history books." - Jeremy Lawrence, PEN South Africa
"Beginning with hunter-gatherer inhabitants of the Cape and their culture, Jack focuses on the encounter that the European visitors had with the Khoisan peoples, sometimes sympathetic but often exploitative from the time of the Portuguese to the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1833. This commercial and colonial background is key to understanding the development of the vibrant city that is modern Cape Town, as well as the rich diversity of the Cape hinterland." - The Society of Antiquaries of London Online Newsletter
"I finished To the Fairest Cape last evening, and write to say that I not only enjoyed it immensely, but learned much from it - the most interesting and unexpected narrative thread was how sympathetic many of the visitors were to the condition of the indigenous peoples. You have an enviable capacity to convey information in an agreeable style that makes reading such a pleasure. Your publishers have done a handsome job on the letterpress and illustrations, so all in all the book is a complete triumph. Warmest congratulations!" - Roland Mayer, Honorary Secretary, The Roman Society and Emeritus Professor of Classics, King's College London
"Over the course of two hundred beautifully written pages, Jack seeks to chart that process of European engagement from the earliest Portuguese explorers of the 15th century to the established British colonists of the mid-1800s. [...] from the very outset of this work, there is rightfully a highly detailed and scholarly account of the indigenous communities who occupied the Cape for thousands of years prior to the advent of the Europeans. [...] This skilfully marshalled and elegantly recounted history opens up new pathways into the European cultural and intellectual past whilst underlining the mystical, mesmeric power of the Cape, that "master link of connection between the western and eastern world." - Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa
