South African Odyssey

The Autobiography of Bertha Goudvis

First Edition

Softcover

Bertha Goudvis was an intrepid woman in the mould of Olive Schreiner, being a pioneering feminist in spirit and a lifelong writer and observer of South Africa. Goudvis's life spanned nearly a century - she died in 1966 having witnessed three wars and the country's change from colonial to modern state.

Born in England in 1876, Bertha came with her family to South Africa at the age of five. She spent her youth trekking by ox-wagon across the country from one small mining town to another. Living among both English and Afrikaans communities but belonging to neither because she was Jewish, Bertha was in a unique position to record early colonial attitudes. She was in touch with many of the people who feature in South Africa's history books, including Rhodes, Lobengula, Kruger and Louis Botha.

Bertha enjoyed a long career of journalism and creative writing, as a correspondent for The Natal Mercury, a journalist for Johannesburg's The Star and having published a bestselling novel, Litte Eden in 1949 and her short stories The Mistress of Mooiplaas in 1956. Bertha also wrote the libretto for a musical, Sunshine Land, and several plays.

This is the story of a revolutionary-for-her-times writer who eloquently brings to life a pre-modern South African landscape etched with the discovery of gold