Captivating Cape Town!
[To leave a comment go right to the end of the page and just enter it in the ‘Leave a Reply’ box]
Kathy on top of the world
Thanks to Tom Kydd, Kathy and I have travelled all over the world on location research, reconstructing in our minds the world of the Georgians and the eighteenth and early nineteenth century Royal Navy.
For CONQUEST, our destination was South Africa. Cape Town is a city in a truly memorable setting – Table Mountain in the background, the Atlantic Ocean on one side of the peninsula, the Indian on the other. Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town was originally developed by the Dutch East India Company as a victualling station for Dutch ships sailing to Eastern Africa, India, and the Far East. Jan van Riebeeck’s arrival on 6 April 1652 established the first permanent European settlement in South Africa there.
Castle of Good Hope
In the distance is the battlefield of Blaauwberg featured in the book. The view of Table Mountain from there is breathtaking.
Many of the historical buildings of the city were there in Kydd’ s day. Foremost of these is the Castle of Good Hope, built in the seventeenth century by the Dutch East India Company.
Cape Town is located at latitude 33.55° S coincidentally almost the same as Buenos Aires, where the succeeding book BETRAYAL is set.
Julian Stockwin 