Lulu Phezulu

Book excerpt: Lulu Phezulu (or 'Lulu on top') is the name of the home of Leigh ('Lulu') Voigt, the well-known artist and book illustrator who lives with her artist husband in the house they built for themselves on a mountain top in a nature reserve in Mpumalanga. This treasure of a book is at one level a personal account of her and her family's move from the city to the country and their serendipitous encounters with nature and the local people. It is also a breathtakingly beautiful natural history notebook filled with Leigh's watercolours and drawings as well as a wealth of anecdotes, curiosities, lore, and legend about the natural world. Lulu Phezulu has grown over many years out of Leigh's need to express, in both words and pictures, the bush and its fascination, highlighting the oddities and complexities of some of its engaging characters, both human and animal. It will appeal to all who have a love of nature and a love of life, both the ordinary and the extraordinary.