Richard Charkin: 'Where the Lion Feeds'

I have spent a week in a multilingual country with 60 million inhabitants, many races, terrific political instability, and a huge gap between rich and poor.

This could have been describing my home, the United Kingdom, but it was South Africa. I was invited to travel there by Jonathan Ball Publishers, the largest sales, marketing, and distribution partner of a distinguished roster of international publishers: HarperCollins, Bloomsbury, Simon & Schuster, Faber, Thames & Hudson, Hachette, and many others, large and small.

I was principally there for Ball Publishers' sales conference held in Walkersons Private Estate near Dullstroom on the very high veld. The estate is brilliantly run by Alex Band and Fiona Scott-Berning.

Anyway, to business. Last year saw retail book sales of 7.6 million units generating 1.8 billion ZAR or South African Rand (US$98.1 million, £76,9 million) with an average unit selling price of ZAR234 (US$12.75, £9.99).