ABOUT
THE BOOK

“My name is Lily Daniels and I live in the Valley, in an old house at the top of a hill with a loquat tree in the garden. We are all women in our house. My grand-mother; my Aunt Stella with her hop along leg, and me. The men in our family are not worth much. They are the cross we have to bear. Some of us, like my mother, don’t live here anymore. People say she went on the Kimberley train to try for white and I mustn’t blame her because she could get away with it even if we didn’t believe she would.” Through the sharp yet loving eyes of eleven-year-old Lily we see the whole exotic, vivid, vigorous culture of the Cape Coloured community at the time when apartheid threatened its destruction. As Lily’s beautiful but angry mother returns to Cape Town, determined to fight for justice for her family, so the story of Lily’s past – and future – erupts. Dance with a Poor Man’s Daughter is a powerful and moving tribute to a richly individual group.