AN EPIC Great Trek novel that has a dagga-smoking womaniser -- who even has sex across the colour line -- for a hero has got some rightwing Afrikaners so hot under the collar that they burnt the book.

Days after Herstigte Nasionale Party leader Andries Breytenbach and a group of placard-wielding supporters burnt a copy of Canvas under the Sky in public last Monday, author Robin Binckes said he still could not understand what all the fuss was about.

"I doubt they even read the book," the respected tour guide and historian said yesterday. "If they had, they would appreciate that the book was written out of admiration for the Afrikaner people."

But Breytenbach is not convinced the novel - which mixes fact and fiction as it charts the mythical Great Trek exploits of hero Rauch Beukes from the Cape Colony to the Battle of Blood River - paints Afrikaners in a good light.

Instead, the rightwing leader sees the novel as yet another attack on the dignity and identity of the Afrikaans minority.