ABOUT
THE BOOK

Dinah and her sister Lisa are growing up in 1950s South Africa, where racial laws are tightening. It’s a time of dreadful change. They are two little girls from a dissenting liveral family. Big sister Lisa is strong and sensible, while Dinah is weedy and arty; a non-eating asthmatic who is pampered by her anxious mother. Dinah’s mother has relocated from pre-war Berlin. Her immigrant mathematician father is a forceful, whirlwind presence. ‘You’re not straining the child’s orange juice again!’, he yells at breakfast, but Dinah doesn’t like ‘bits’.
At school, the sadistic Mrs Vaughan-Jones is providing instruction in mental arithmetic and racial prejudice. And then there’s the puzzle of lunch break. ‘Would you rather have a native girl or a koelie make your sandwiches?’ a classmate asks. But Dinah doesn’t know the answer, because it’s her dad who makes her sandwiches. As the apparatus of repression rolls on, Dinah finds her own way, escaping into rewarding friendships with brilliant, wild-girl Maud and trim, clued-up Jenny. Then there’s the minefield of boys and university – not least the Freshers’ Reception Committee with its racist rugger choruses. Finally, there’s marriage and voluntary exile in London.
As we follow Dinah’s journey through childhood and adolescence, we enter into one of the darker passages of twentieth-century history.