Peekay is bullied and abused almost immediately upon arrival as a 5 year old at his boarding school. I can't begin to imagine sending a 5 year old away to a boarding school even in the 'best' of conditions.Īnd the fact that this story is inspired by the authors real life.for me, this is one of the most wrenching parts of the entire book.'being sent away from his family at age 5 - from 'love' he was receiving to 'hatred' he was walking into. Our oldest daughter attended a boarding High School in Michigan for a short time -an academic/arts school. ( although we follow him from age 5 to 20 - from the late 1930's to mid 40's).

I fell in love with Peekay even 'before' he was five years old, starting in South Africa, when he shares of being nursed from his lovely black nanny before being sent to boarding school. He was 79.Ĭourtenay is survived by his second wife Christine Gee and his children Adam and Brett. I had been telling stories since the age of five and had always known I would be a writer some day, though life kept getting in the way until I realised that it was either now or never.īryce Courtenay died at his home in Canberra, Australia. I have lived all my Australian life in Sydney (the nicest place on earth) and, until I started writing fiction, made my career in advertising working as a copywriter and creative director.Īt the age of 55 I decided to take the plunge. Brett, who married Ann has given me three lovely grandsons, Ben now 14, Jake is about to turn 12 and Marcus is almost 6 years old. Benita gave me three splendid sons, Brett, Adam and Damon.

I did, and soon after arriving in Australia, married her. While studying journalism, I met a wonderful Australian girl. One day the school hall was raided by the police who then branded me a Communist as they considered educating Africans a subversive act. This was due to the fact that I had started a weekend school for Africans in the school hall of the prestigious boy's school I attended. I came to Australia because I was banned from returning to my own country. His was the best education I was ever to receive, despite the scholarship I won to a prestigious boy's school and thereafter to a university in England where I studied Journalism. Here I met Doc, a drunken German music teacher who spent the next few years filling my young mind with the wonders of nature as we roamed the high mountains. At the age of five I was sent to a boarding school which might be better described as a combination orphanage and reform school, where I learned to box - though less as a sport and more as a means to stay alive.īut I survived to return to a small mountain town named Barberton in the North Eastern part of the country. It was a somewhat isolated community and I grew up among farm folk and the African people. I was born illegitimately in 1933 in South Africa and spent my early childhood years in a small town deep in the heart of the Lebombo mountains.

The power of one courtenay