Welcome to my brand-new site, set up by a kind internet-savvy daughter Jane-Anne. It works like a blog but will only be added to on rare occasions, like the publication of this new book after a too-long drought. Being part of the small team that organises the Franschhoek Literary Festival takes up a lot of writing time, however satisfying the process of bringing a lot of writers together to talk books in the lovely village where I live. 

My latest novel, Kitchen Boy (Umuzi) will be launched at Kalk Bay Books on Friday 11 March. 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.

>> To read an extract from the book: Click here (PDF file)

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.”