“Understanding of self, understanding of nations is often crafted or comes out of a sense of what people have read in novels about their own society”. Growing up in South Africa in the 1940s, ‘50s, and 60’s Justin Cartwright’s early years were devoid of television and radio. His life was instead shaped by the books that he read.
So many years later books continue to play a central role in Cartwright’s life. Today he is a highly celebrated author, composing novels in his adopted British homeland. Yet the importance of his early years in Africa are clearly evident after a quick exploration of Cartwright’s bibliography.
His most visited character, Timothy Curtiz, spends a great deal of three novels exploring the great wildernesses and landscapes of Africa, not to mention the obvious ode to Joseph Conrad’s Kurtz from Heart of Darkness. Other novels like White Lightning and In Every Face I Meet similarly use South Africa as a backdrop.
In his latest novel, Up Against the Night, Cartwright again calls on the landscape and history of his native South Africa. This time it seems closer to home than ever before. Frank McAllister, the novel’s narrator, is a successful South African expat living in London, much like his creator. McAllister and Cartwright share more than just a passing resemblance though.
Both are the sons of editors of liberal, anti-Apartheid newspapers, both studied at Oxford, and-most importantly-both are the descendents of the Boer leader Piet Retief. This last detail is essential. Where Cartwright’s earlier novels often featured a male antagonist searching after an elusive, beguiling, and problematic father Up Against the Night ups the ante with this historic giant.
Retief is a man who embodies the Boer relationship with Africa. Pushing out into the frontier of the Cape Colony Retief found a land so beautiful he believed it was created by God for him and his followers. As Cartwright explains: “they thought they’d entered a sort of biblical land...and they seemed to be given the go ahead to take these parts of the country”.
Symbolic of the wider Boer history Retief’s attempt to make the land his own ends with his blood, and that of his followers, soaking into this beautiful land. South Africa was a paradise that could only be bought with violence.
Returning to South Africa McAllister tries to negotiate his past, his present relationship Nellie, her son Bertil, and his daughter Lucinda, and his mercurial and burdensome cousin Jaco. These highs and lows are all painted against the beautiful and harsh backdrop of South Africa.
Join Talking Books’ host Susan Cahill as she talks with Justin Cartwright about his own history, the importance of background and landscape, and how it has all helped to inform Up Against the Night.
After this Susan talks with former Labour MP and accomplished author, Peter Hain, about his latest book, Back to the Future of Socialism, and how socialist theory can help to save Britain.
This week’s music to read to
The show opens with Pride by Keith Kenniff before part one comes to a close with Ghost River by Jonathan Kirkscey. The show ends with another Jonathan Kirkscey tune: Sketches Of Soulsville.
