A Decent Fellow Doesn’t Work by Lawrence G. Green

A Decent Fellow Doesn’t Work by Lawrence G. Green is a classic work of South African travel writing and Africana, first published in Cape Town by Howard Timmins in 1963. Written by one of South Africa’s best-known popular historians and travel writers, this engaging volume brings together Green’s experiences as an observant and easy-going traveller in search of unusual places, memorable characters and the pleasures of life both within and beyond Southern Africa.

Green was renowned for transforming his journeys, conversations and encounters into immensely readable narratives. In A Decent Fellow Doesn’t Work, his travels range widely, taking in Southern African landscapes as well as destinations farther afield. Railways, ships, hotels, cities, remote places and the colourful people encountered along the way all contribute to a book that is considerably more than a conventional travelogue. Green combines anecdote, history, humour and personal philosophy in the distinctive conversational style that made his books enduring favourites with generations of South African readers.

A Decent Fellow Doesn’t Work includes photographic illustrations and a colour frontispiece, adding valuable visual context to Green’s recollections. Bibliographical records describe the first edition as containing 264 pages with illustrated plates and an index.

Published by Howard Timmins of Cape Town in 1963, this first edition A Decent Fellow Doesn’t Work is particularly appealing to collectors of Lawrence G. Green, vintage South African travel literature, Africana, Cape history and twentieth-century Southern African writing.

Condition – Fair

Original blue cloth hardcover without dust jacket. Boards show general age-related fading, soiling and staining, with a prominent area of surface loss/marking to the front board. Wear and fraying are present at the corners and spine extremities. Page edges show age toning and some spotting.