Books

A timeline of historical events and interesting information from 1770 to 2020.

The stories of the drifts, causeways, ponts, ferries, and bridges that have connected Knysna to the world to its west.

A history of the 7-Passes Road and its predecessors - from 1752 to the 1940s - with a kilometre-by-kilometre guide for anyone using the route today.

A detailed look at the history and the people of one of South Africa's earliest gold rushes

The South African War (1899-1902) through the experiences of some of the men who saw action in the Cape Colony.

The distribution of the woodcutters of the Knysna Forests in the 1860s, and early attempts at relocating them

Karatara: A story of poverty, people & plantations by Philip Caveney

A true story and researched memoir of Knysna under Apartheid

The Hessequa pastured their cattle along the south-east Cape coast between the present-day towns of Swellendam and Albertinia - and beyond - long before the arrival of the European colonists. 

The continuing story of Gareth Patterson’s almost two decades of research into the secretive Knysna elephants. It reveals his startling discovery of a much more mysterious being than the elephants – a relict hominoid known to the indigenous forest people as the Otang.

Follow this link for books and movies about the Knysna Forests published before 2019