This is the story of a lifelong love affair – with a 300 year-old cottage, reputedly the home of folk hero, Wolraad Woltemade.

Told with wit and warmth, it presents a colourful pastiche of personal challenges, research and discoveries, within the framework of changing lifestyles and food fashions at the Cape of Good Hope.

When David and Jos Baker saw that the national monument Klein Zoar was up for sale and crying out for empathetic owners, they rushed to the rescue, putting in an offer they couldn't afford.

When this was accepted, their lives changed. From a prestige marina development with all mod cons and a boat at the door, they moved to a house with sitzbad and cow-dung floor in a downmarket suburb.

Share their battle to preserve the cottage and probe its past: their excitement when a painting of Klein Zoar by Edward Rowarrth (best known for his painting of the first National Convention of the Union of South Africa) came up for auction; their concern when a dune mole surfaced under the kitchen table and the east wing listed alarmingly to show they sky.

Jos, food-editor and freelance journalist, supported David's belief that they were custodians, rather than owners. She now carries the burden alone. Join her in a journey that spans the centuries, finding expression in the party for the well-preserved that ends the book.

Proceeds of the book will go towards the upkeep of Klein Zoar.

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