E-mail us a comment on this writer. (Comments may be edited and used on this website.) About the author Alan Stewart Paton was born in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu- Natal in 1903. He published his first poem in 1920 in the magazine of Natal University College. Paton became a science teacher in 1925, teaching for three years in Ixopo where much of his famous first novel, Cry, the Beloved Country, is set. He then moved to Pietermaritzburg to teach at Maritzburg College. He served as principal for 13 years (1935–48) of Diepkloof Reformatory for delinquent African boys, which provides the setting for some of his most memorable stories. With the publication in 1948 of Cry, the Beloved Country, Alan Paton won international acclaim and – with sales of over ten million copies of the book in paperback – could live thereafter by his pen. He wrote four other books and, from his home in Kloof in KwaZulu-Natal, frequently contributed to the non-racial review Contact and chaired the board of Reality, the monthly journal of liberal opinion. He was leader of the country’s Liberal Party from 1953. Alan Paton died, aged 85, on 12 April 1988 at his home in Botha's Hill, KwaZulu-Natal. The Order of Ikhamanga (Class Gold) was awarded to him by the President on 27 September 2006. Alan Paton says of writing: “I have never done what other writers have done. I have never made it my life’s work, I have never put it above every other obligation. I have envied those who did so, and who went to live in Cuba, and Hand’s Cove, and the Big Sur, and the solitude of Cornwall and such delectable places.” Listen to Alan Paton. Alan Paton’s other published work includes:    •   Too Late the Phalarope, 1953    •   Debbie Go Home, 1961    •   Hofmeyr, 1964    •   Sponono: A Play in Three Acts, 1965    •   Instrument of Thy Peace, 1968    •   Kontakion for You Departed, 1969    •   Apartheid and the Archbishop: the life and times of Geoffrey Clayton, Archbishop of Cape Town, 1973    •   Knocking at the Door, 1975    •   Ah, but your land is beautiful, 1981    •   Diepkloof: reflections of Diepkloof Reformatory, 1986    •   Journey Continued, 1988    •   Songs of Africa: collected poems, 1995 Title published by Umuzi: The Hero of Currie Road: complete short pieces home   writers   books   contact   buy   rights all content © Umuzi, Random House Struik this website designed and maintained by Guanaco.co.za