Tales from the Graveyard by Pieter Scholtz

These Tales from the Graveyard tell of the ghostly inhabitants of a little cemetery near the village of Loupiac, in France.

Date of Publication: 12th November 2012
ISBN: 978-0-620-53349-2
Publisher: Horus Publications
Reviews: “These tales leave lingering aftertastes of delight, amusement, strange beauty, and an eccentric sort of comfort, making for fine bedtime reading.” – Marí Peté

“Fiction to be believable must resemble our lives as much as possible. And the best fiction is written by people who are life’s meticulous observers. To a greater rather than a lesser extent, one life is very like another in its broad sweep – we are born, we live, we die – but it is the details which create the differences and define each individual. And it is these details which are crucial.

It is here that the writer Pieter Scholtz shines – he knows his characters from the inside as if they were part of his family. He is aware of their weaknesses and their strengths. And he loves them, forgiving the former and lauding the latter. This is crucial – one must be passionate – loving or hating – there can be no in between.
A story in print that evokes the spoken word resonates with us making us remember the childhood joy of our mother reading to us at bedtime. (I in fact read the stories out loud the first time, although I was alone and it was magical.)

Scholtz’s other home is in France, beside a water-tower and close to a cemetery so it is little wonder that his descriptions of place and person are so graphic. The names carved in stone set his clever imagination free to invent the people to fit them. One by one we meet them and get to know them. The finest writing uses the simplest of language allowing the story to provide the colour, as indeed the writer does page after page.

For whom are these stories written? For us as adults – remembering the child we once were – and for the child who will be listening as we read the stories out loud to them.” – Andrew Verster.