Once upon a time on the Bluff in Durban, when he was just a Brighton Beach SPS schoolboy, long before life as a jaunty and worldly award-winning journalist, TV/film-scriptwriter, bestselling author, and winner of the 2008 Percy FitzPatrick Prize for Youth Literature for his novel SuperZero, Darrel Bristow-Bovey had little hands and this is what he read… (more…)

A wee while ago, not far away, but long before he became publishing editor of Wordsetc, a literary journal that promotes the consumption of South African literature and encourages a culture of reading and writing, Phakama Mbonambi, had little hands, and this is what he read:
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In high and not so far-off times at the Queens Hotel in the Cape Town habour, before Dance with a Poor Man’s Daughter, Frieda and Min, Like Water in Wild Places, People Like Ourselves and Môrester, before she dreamed she would be a multi-award-winning author, Pamela Jooste had little hands and this is what she read …
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Once upon a time in a town caught between a wide river and a bewitched mountain, in a life before The Devil’s Chimney and The Rowing Lesson, Anne Landsman had little hands and this is what she read …
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Once upon a stormy time, in a location called Blouvlei, before anyone ever imagined what an extraordinary future she would have, as prolific author, poet, playwright, essayist, storyteller, actor, inspirational speaker, United Nations officer working to give voice to women’s issues, the plight of children and the fight against apartheid and racism, yes, long before all that, Sindiwe Magona had little hands and this is what she read… (more…)

Once upon a wistful time in friendly Madiba Bay, a dozen years and more before The Innocence of Roast Chicken, Touching the Lighthouse, Sad at the Edges and My Brother’s Book, Jo-Anne Richards had little hands and this is what she read … (more…)

Upon a time in wild and wonderful Fish Hoek, where swimmers still swim every morning in summer, long before he was known as a lyricist, novelist, essayist and one of the most important English langugage authors in the land, Mike Nicol had little hands and this is what he read …
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In the province of sugar cane and pineapples, in the city where Ghandi was once refused permission to enter the first class cabin although he had a ticket, and long before literary tourism in KZN, and The Heart Knows No Colour and A Scent So Sweet, Prabashini Moodley had little hands and this is what she read … (more…)

Back, far back, almost lost in the mists of time (thank God!, says Tim), when childhood was very different, and there was no TV, an age before he was an academic historian, and long before Tromp’s Last Stand and My Life with the Duvals, Tim Keegan had little hands and this is what he read …
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Once upon a not so distant time, before she was imprisoned as a student, before she was a writer of educational books, before Fifteen Men, before her brilliant international success with crime novels Like Clockwork and Blood Rose, Margie Orford had little hands and this is what she read …
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