I keep a box under my bed with all the plays that were rejected over the years - including what I thought was a particularly brilliant one-woman show I'd written for Maggie Smith. When I turned 30, I thought it unseemly to carry on writing plays. If you haven't made it as a playwright in your 20s, you never will, so I tried to write a novel instead.
BIO
There is nothing in my life that will be of much interest - but here goes. I was born and raised in Johannesburg. My mother was a teacher and my father a barrister. I attended an Afrikaans primary school and an English high school. After matriculating I enrolled in drama school but dropped out after two weeks and finished a BA in English and Philosophy instead. I did my post grad degree at the University of Auckland and scraped together a meagre existence working for community arts projects and writing plays for Auckland Theatre Company (Small God, Small God Radio adaptation for RNZ, Play 2, Play 2.03, Mrs Viljee). I believed I had a bright future as a playwright - and brimming with confidence I moved to London. I keep a box under my bed with all the plays that were rejected over the years - including what I thought was a particularly brilliant one-woman show I'd written for Maggie Smith. When I turned 30, I thought it unseemly to carry on writing plays. If you haven't made it as a playwright in your 20s, you never will, so I tried to write a novel instead.
In 2005, I moved to the UK with my (now) husband and live in South London with a rescue bulldog named Elliot. I’m a freelance copywriter / digital producer and am currently working on a new play..
(and a couple questions from Cape's Author Questionnaire)
(and a couple questions from Cape's Author Questionnaire)
The book is an easy read and it's not overly political; then again it's difficult to write a book about South Africa that doesn't have political overtones. I think parts of it are funny - but there are a fair few readers who didn't find it funny at all. A very well-regarded editor said it was an 'unremittingly grim read in which every kindness just begets another cruelty.'
Who do you think this book will appeal to?
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(and a couple questions from Cape's Author Questionnaire)
What was the inspiration for your book?
Werner Deyer and I have a lot in common. His flaws, though metastasized, are mine. Misanthropy is often noble - an expression of deep disappointment in the fact that people can't get their shit together. But there is a mean spirited kind and its genesis lies in the fact the world has failed to appreciate you sufficiently - or at all. At best it makes you a sneering, jealous bore - at worst it makes you a vicious, dangerous bastard, which is more fun. I also share Werner's gluttony, his fondness for alcohol, his vanity, an undignified obsession with male beauty and a love of nicotine. I too crave adulation, influence and power - whilst recognising that these desires are vulgar. I think the book is an alternative autobiography - the kind of person I could be and the kind of person I sometimes am. I joke - but then again - not entirely.
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