African Relations

Anyone who knows South Africa or has family who spent the Second World War in the region of the Eastern Cape will be moved by this book. The story tells of the growing up of a young girl in a volatile land, where racial conflict was often overridden by the good nature and humanity of ordinary people. Kathleen, born into a bilingual family in 1926 and speaking both English and Afrikaans fluently, eventually meets and marries an RAF Airman, Grahame. She follows him to war-torn England, forever leaving behind her family and all that she knows in South Africa. The book salutes a generation that faced adversity not expected in our modern age and came out toughened and still laughing. A chapter on the life of Nelson Mandela, born in the same region, highlights the irony of the cultural differences of that time.