Magnates and Mansions: Johannesburg 1886–1914, by Margaret Barry and Nimmo Law

Despite its broken warehouses and cluttered image today, Doornfontein was the first affluent suburb of Johannesburg, and Saratoga its tree-lined avenue. Here was Clyfton House, the Henry Nourse home, John Dale Lace's elegant Norman House, and The Turrets, where Sir George Albu lived. Nearby in Beit Street the domed Bettelheim House was built, home of the debonair ‘'Beetles' Bettelheim, the Turkish Consul. Gradually, as the mining camp grew into a town, the rich created splendid new suburbs– Bertrams, Jeppestown, Belgravia, Parktown.

Magnates and Mansions opens the doors of some of the old homes and gives us a fascinating glimpse into the vanished lifestyle of grandeur and opulence which the mining magnates enjoyed. These ornate and often ostentatious homes were testaments to their wealth and social standing.

Filled with amusing anecdotes and cameo sketches, the text is complimented by photographs and Margaret Barry's exquisite illustrations of some of the homes, many of which have been demolished. This is indeed a piece of lost Johannesburg and a book to treasure.