Our Price: AUD$24.95 (USD$)* ISBN: 978-1-921456-04-6 Subject: Non-Fiction/Biography Publication Date: October 2008

Synopsis
A personal account of a time spent working on a huge diamond mine in the mining area called the Sperrgebied in the dry and inhospitable Namib Desert of southern Namibia.

Diamonds & Dust is a collection of personal, humorous and often poignant stories about the characters and people living in a remote and isolated outpost called Affenrucken.

About The Author
Malcolm Bertoni was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa.

He has travelled to and worked extensively in Europe, USA, Africa, South East Asia and China, and eventually moved to Australia in the early 80s, where he now resides.

With qualifications in economics, management, marine science and IT, Malcolm is now a university lecturer.

Diamonds & Dust, his first published book, is mostly a collection of stories and events from his early adult life working in Namibia - his first time away from Cape Town.

From The Book
This collection of yarns, anecdotes, recollections and reminiscences is about a place, a time and a group of young men.

The place is a remote location called Affenrucken in the Namib Desert of southern Namibia. The time covers an eight-year period from 1967 to 1974. The group of young men are workers who were employed to work on the world's largest diamond mine located along the southern Namibian coast in a remote harshness that was also stunning in its beauty.

Initially, I had no intention of writing this book, especially after so many years had passed. So the reader might ask: why now? Good question.

I was recently chatting to a friend from Cape Town and telling him about the things we used to do at this unheard of place called Affenrucken. He would crack up laughing when I told him about some of the insane things we did.

"Why don't you write this stuff down? It sounds like you guys had a ball," he said.

So here it is...