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Acknowledgements

Michelle Adler, my PhD supervisor, and Tim Couzens, my supervisor in the initial stages of the doctorate, as well as David Attwell, my National Research Foundation-appointed mentor for 2004–2005, helped me do the groundwork for this book. Craig MacKenzie and Stefan Helgesson’s examiners’ reports were most helpful in rethinking, extending and reformulating ideas, as were the comments of peer reviewers of the final book manuscript, Michael Titlestad and David Johnson.

A number of colleagues at Stellenbosch University generously commented on parts of the book: thanks to Louise Green, Grace Musila, Lynda Spencer, Tina Steiner and Nwabisa Bangeni. Other colleagues, ex-colleagues and friends took time to give me their detailed views on drafts of the book – Sarah Nuttall and Nita Hanmer, my most critical and helpful readers, in particular – as well as Flora Veit-Wild, Milton van Wyk and Dan Yon. Basil Appollis offered continual interest and generous contributions from the start to the conclusion of this project.

Dan Yon, David Medalie and Sandra Swart, dear friends and colleagues, allowed me to share the ups and downs of academic projects and private life and helped to keep this project in perspective. The willing participation and generosity of many of Rive’s friends, especially the late Ivan Abrahams and Albert Adams, and also Ursula and Gilbert Reines, made the more personal aspects of this portrait possible. Maeve Heneke and Stephen Yeo shared memories, criticism and a most generous and supportive second home in London. Richard Hauke, in Virginia, very generously gave his wife Kathleen’s almost two decades of research on Rive to the National English Literary Museum (Nelm) and to me, after she passed away in 2004 before completing her own biography on Rive.

Tristan Brikkels, my even-tempered, optimistic partner who bore the brunt of the tantrums and despair, and the rest of my family – Anna Viljoen and Jasper Walters, and Sharon, Dwane, Nicolas and Meghan Harris – were the comedians and cooks who were always interested in my work and helped to keep me going to the very end. Good food indeed played a part in sustaining the writing; thanks to Harald Bresselschmidt and the staff of Aubergine for providing a writing retreat with the best soul food in the world. Constant support and good food came from my Caledon family Elsabe and Dennis Alexander, and Vetesia and Paul Abrahams.

I also wish to thank the following people for their help:

— the numerous interviewees who almost always gave time and shared memories in the most generous ways. They are accredited by name or anonymously in the work. In particular, thanks to George Hallett, who has been very generous in sharing both his photographs and memories;

— Roshan Cader at Wits University Press for her frank questions and comments, Alison Lockhart, the editor who understood what I was trying to do, and Alfred LeMaitre for a most useful initial edit of the book;

— colleagues at Stellenbosch University for their encouragement and support, in particular Meg Samuelson, who gave me her unstinting support on a number of fronts, and also Annie Gagiano, Jeanne Ellis, Mathilda Slabbert, Dawid de Villiers, Daniel Roux, Rita Barnard, Alastair Henderson and Dirk Klopper;

— ex-Hewat College of Education colleagues and friends who were generous with memories and always interested, in particular Marina and Carl Lotter, Jerome and Lilian Van Wyk, Gertrude Fester, Julia Isaacs and Tarnia van Zitters;

— Deborah Britzman at the University of York, Toronto, Canada, and Fernando Rosa Ribeiro at the University of Malaya;

— ex-students and friends Mark Espin and Deela Khan for reading early drafts;

— Berni Searle, Noel Daniels, Dawn Daniels, Rafiq Omar, Sharon Prins, Jerome Thomas, Zubeida Desai, Natasha Distiller, Pamela Nichols and Helen Struthers, who, through fair means or foul, tried to inspire and keep me going;

— Hosea and Ada Jaffe, and Mark Visagie and Daska Grandtnerova in Britain;

— family members who were interested in my work and supported me in various ways: Pierre Kay and Andy Kay and their families in Cape Town; Jean, Kenny, Marc and Ross Wentzel; Carol Abrahamse and Chris Abrahamse, all in Toronto; and the late Milly and Teddy Roberts, and their daughters Erica, Joanne and Barbara and their families in Brazil;

— student assistants Janine Loedolff, Rico Burnett, Ryan Weaver, Jonathan Maré, François Olivier, Vasti Calitz and Jim Jenkins, and administrative assistants Susan Matdat and Hilary Oostendorp;

— the Fundamentals Training Centre for technical support and help, especially the assistance of Hylton Bergh.

I am grateful to the most helpful staff at the following research institutions where I did much of the archival research: the District Six Museum and Sound Archive, particularly archivist Margaux Bergman; the Police Museum in Pretoria; Nelm, particularly Ann Torlesse; the Magdalen College Archive, particularly Robin Darwall-Smith; Christine Ferdinand at the Magdalen College library; the University of Cape Town administration records and archives; South Peninsula High School principal Brian Isaacs; the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, in particular Timothy Young; the Schomburg Institute in Harlem, New York; the JS Gericke Library at the University of Stellenbosch; University of Cape Town Jagger Library and Archive; the St Helena Ar chive; and the South African National Library, Cape Town.

Financial assistance for this project was received from the National Research Foundation, the research offices of the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Stellenbosch, the dean of the Arts faculty and the department of English at the University of Stellenbosch, and the Tothill Foundation. The ex-dean and ex-deputy dean of the faculty of Arts and Social Science at the university of Stellenbosch, Hennie Kotzé and Marianna Visser, provided financial and moral support over a long decade.