Jock of the Bushveld

Jock of the Bushveld is a story set in the rough Bushveld of South Africa’s gold mining era. Jock is the faithful dog and companion of a transport rider. Through their adventures we catch a glimpse of those heady gold rush days. Jock, the runt of the litter turns out to be a faithful companion to the end.

This is the original and unabridged version of this South African favourite lovingly restored from the 1907 edition.

Sir James Percy FitzPatrick, KCMG (24 July 1862 - 24 January 1931), or simply Percy FitzPatrick, authored the classic children’s book, Jock of the Bushveld in 1907. After his father died FitzPatrick left school to support his family. He arrived in South Africa’s Eastern Transvaal goldfields in 1884, where he worked as an ox-wagon transport-rider from Lourenço Marques (Maputo) to Lydenburg and Barberton. Fitzpatrick turned his adventures into bedtime stories for his children. Rudyard Kipling, a good friend of Fitzpatrick, who also took part in these story-telling evenings persuaded him to publish them. The result was Jock of the Bushveld which was first published in 1907 and has since achieved the status of a South African classic. FitzPatrtick gave his collection of wild animal gathered during hunting trips to form the first stock of the Johannesburg Zoo.