Thoughts in a Makeshift Mortuary (Michael Joseph, London, 1989; Grafton, 1990) deals with the tragic effects of apartheid violence and hatred on young South Africans, and is also a double love story spanning thirty years. Thoughts was a finalist for the 1989 CNA Literary Award, and was published by Econ Verlag in Germany under the title Tief im Süden.

What the back cover says:

“The date is December 1985; the place a village in the mountain kingdom of Lesotho, the independent black country surrounded by white South Africa.  Hooded gunmen have come in the night and shot dead a young couple: Rose, a South African teacher, and her coloured husband Jake, a poet turned ANC activist with whom she had been living in exile.  Her mother grieves over the torn bodies while her father rages round the village in a fury of loss. In a series of flashbacks, Rose’s life and her parents’ stormy marriage unfold against the background of the turmoil and agony of recent events in South Africa, dominated by the urgent need to identify with those set apart for their colour.  But, as the local people prepare for the funeral, a ray of hope shines through the darkness.  The white girl and her husband did not die in vain.  There was a survivor of the shooting…  A pulsating first novel from South Africa, Thoughts in a Makeshift Mortuary is the tragic account of a forbidden love between two people of different races and a lament for the young lives being laid waste in an unhappy country.  Above all, it is a praise song to the South Africans of all races who are trying to build bridges rather than blow them up.”  

The Sweet-Smelling Jasmine (Michael Joseph, London, 1993; Penguin, London, 1994) moves between the early 50’s and the present.  It centres on an unhappy wife whose new lover encourages her to delve back into the dramatic events of a year in their shared past in a racially mixed town on Natal’s South Coast, when community unrest culminated in rioting and the destruction of a Hindu temple.  Jasmine was submitted by South African librarians for the Irish Impac Award, and published by Econ Verlag in Germany under the title Zeit des Jasmin.

What the back cover says:

"The Sweet-Smelling Jasmine is a rich and multi-layered novel, set in present-day and 1950s South Africa.  It opens with Isabel in the arms of her unnamed lover, a man from the brief exciting year in her youth when she discovered a whole new world in the Natal sugar-mill town of Two Rivers.  A world which became a powder keg of racial tension and religious fervour, and finally blew up when a Hindu temple stood in the way of progress.  What happened to the gutsy, inquisitive young Isabel, who is now an unconfident woman straining against the shackles of a moribund marriage and much-loved but demanding grown-up children?  Who were Finn and Stella, Mr Reddy and Opal, Kesaval and Asha, and the frenzied Sister Kathleen?  And which of the four boys from Two Rivers has she met again and fallen in love with? At her lover’s urging, Isabel resolves to untangle the threads of her life – and perhaps gain enough self-respect to free herself from her carping husband – by writing about the events she experienced as a teenager and about the people she shared them with.  As she remembers the series of incidents that led up to the fatal explosion of violence on a Good Friday evening, Isabel comes to terms with a part of herself that for years has been repressed, and in doing so, she finds the key that will change her life.” 

The Telling of Angus Quain (Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg, 1997) is the account of an unusual friendship between a Johannesburg business tycoon and a woman historian, set largely in the men’s club where he lives.  When he is diagnosed as having terminal cancer, he begins to tell her about his less-than-savoury past and her life takes a very different turn. Quain was shortlisted for the 1998 M-Net Book Prize and was also chosen for submission for the Irish Impac Award. It was published by Econ Verlag in Germany under the title Der Stern von Johannesburg.

What the back cover says:

“The Telling of Angus Quain is a sharply observed novel of contemporary Johannesburg, featuring Angus Quain’s rise from railwayman’s son to executive glory and his unusual friendship with Faith Dobermann, a lonely writer/historian who begins to realise that he is not who he seems…  In the corporate world where power equals money, ‘King’ Quain reigns supreme until he is sabotaged by cancer and his carefully constructed secret lives begin to unravel.  Faith’s curiosity about him grows into a quest for the truth that takes her from a Jeppe striptease joint along the devious byways of financial corruption to a startling confrontation between the dying man and his rivals in fraud, witnessed by the people he has spent a paradoxical lifetime helping. This is the compelling story of a brilliant but flawed man and his last, redeeming relationship with an independent younger woman: a story of our time, cast with people whose voices are all too familiar and set against the minefield of modern city living.”

Video Dreams (Penguin, Johannesburg, 1995) is a novel  for teenagers, the story of a girl who slides into a life of drugs and crime but is redeemed when she is nursed back to health after an accident by a group of powerful black women who have established their own village in the Drakensberg.  It was published by Econ Verlag in Germany under the title Roter Horizont.

What the back cover says:

“I roared into the next action-packed episode of my life without a cent to my name … clutching a complete stranger in black leathers."  What is Sylvie leaving behind?  A father who scorns her, school that means nothing to her and drugs that have nearly killed her.  She’s taking along her video dreams, though; the wonderful world in her imagination that’s so much richer than real life. Ahead of her lies an amazing cross-country journey with an armed robber on a motor bike.  Then – maybe – salvation at the end of the road.”

Kitchen Boy (Umuzi) will be published in March 2011.  It’s a novel about a young war hero and rugby Springbok who makes a mistake that dogs him all his life, and about the long-term effects of war on his family, war comrades, friends and associates, mostly set in Natal (as it then was) and POW camps.

What the back cover says:

“Luck matters. Life is chancy. An oval ball can bounce any way. Springbok legend, celebrated war hero, thriving businessman – that was JJ Kitching, known to all as Kitchen Boy. His was a life as large as a sports stadium, as thrilling as baling out of a burning war plane. Now he lies dead in his coffin in a Durban cathedral and his life is relived as funeral goers remember a glowing Natal childhood, the thunder of the rugby field, the joys and sorrows of family. But at the core of the man remained, to the end, the memory of WWII and how it could reduce even the bravest of men.”

JENNY'S SHORT STORIES

Darling Blossom (Don Nelson, Cape Town, 1978)

“Fresh from the pages of  Darling magazine comes South Africa’s own sweetheart, Blossom. For five years this Joeys chick has been delighting readers with unexpurgated accounts of life in Bez Valley: who could ever forget Auntie Vilma and Ouma, the ole man and my boet, Lorna and Charmaine or Bok-bok, the perennial boyfriend? To cheers of ‘Vrystaat!’ from all the fans, here they are at last together in one book.”

Other short stories of mine have appeared in many South African publications and in:

Argosy

Contrast

New Contrast

Weekend Telegraph Magazine

 Crossing Over, compiled by Linda Rode and Jakes Gerwel (Kwela)

Highlights, compiled by Gina Todd (Lexicon)

Moderne Erzähler der Welt: Südafrika, edited by Peter Sulzer (Erdmann)

More Tales of South Africa, compiled by C Murray Booysen (Howard Timmins)

New South African Writing¸ 1964 - 1968 (Purnell) New South African Writing¸ 1977 (Lorton)

Tapestry, compiled by Ursula Venter and Juliana Lombard (Lexicon)

Twenty-Eight Essays, compiled by A D Dodd (Juta)

A Web of Feelings, compiled by Paul A Scanlon (Shuter and Shooter)