Beverley Naidoo - Children's Author

Beverley Naidoo was born into a white, middle-class family in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1943. She graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in 1963. Her involvement with the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa led to her being imprisoned in solitary confinement for eight weeks at the age of 21. She left for England in 1965 and studied at the University of York with the help of a United Nations Bursary, training to become a teacher. Her first novel for children, Journey to Jo'burg, was published in 1985. A powerful portrayal of racism seen from a child's perspective, the book was banned in South Africa until 1991. A sequel, Chain of Fire, was published in 1989. No Turning Back (1995) was written after running workshops for young people in South Africa with theatre director Olusola Oyeleye. The Other Side of Truth (2000) was inspired in part by the execution of Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and tells the story of two Nigerian children who flee to London as refugees after their mother is killed.

Q&A WITH BEVERLEY NAIDOO:

Favourite Hero: The little African hare. He plays tricks on bigger, bossier animals who think that big is best

Favourite Monster: The tick-tock crocodile in Peter Pan.

Special secret power: A secret is a secret. (when i was a child, i made a secret society with a friend. To this day, i have never told anyone the meaning of our name The TTs'.)

Favourite Fight Scene: War and Peas by Michael Foreman. The animals in King Lion's country are starving but they manage to chase away the greedy Fat King and his army.

---

Featured Books, with extracts by Beverley Naidoo

Call of the Deep
Beverley Naidoo
Interest Age 11+ Reading Age 8+. These two haunting tales are brought to you from the ocean deep. We meet the good, the wicked, and the downright evil and through them we get a sense of the mesmerising power of...
Featured in: 11+ readers | 9+ readers | Reluctant Readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 22/05/2008
Info   Extract   Wishlist   Compare Price   Buy

Burn My Heart
Beverley Naidoo
Internationally acclaimed and award-winning author Beverley Naidoo explores new territory in this beautifully realized and moving story set in Britain's colonial past. It's Kenya in the 1950s - a time when colonial rule vies for supremacy over the Mau Mau....
Featured in: 11+ readers | eBooks
Format: Paperback (b Format) - Released: 05/07/2007
Info   Extract   Wishlist   Compare Price   Buy

The Great Tug of War
Beverley Naidoo
Eight witty short stories about how Mmutla, the clever little hare, outwits the other animals. In The Great Tug-of-War, Mmutla challenges both  Tlou the elephant and Kubu the Hippo to a tug of war. Both are sure they can win...
Featured in: 7+ readers
Format: Paperback - Released: 01/03/2006
Info   Extract   Wishlist   Compare Price   Buy

The Other Side of Truth
Beverley Naidoo
This is the story of 12 year-old Sade and her brother Femi who flee to Britain from Nigeria. Their father is a political journalist who refuses to stop criticising the military rulers in Nigeria. Their mother is killed and they are sent to...
Featured in: 14+ readers | eBooks
Format: Paperback - Released: 27/04/2000
Info   Extract   Wishlist   Compare Price   Buy