222 mm x 146 mm, 208 pages RRP: R140, ISBN 978-1-4152-0060-5 Publication date: 27 June 2008, Category: Memoir "A fusion of the romantic and the possible ... That is daily life in a boarding school”       – John van de Ruit, author of Spud Description Boarding school means different things to different people: homesickness, bullying, harsh punishment and escape attempts; but also midnight feasts, lifelong friendships, love and learning. School days shape a person’s life – and never more than when you’re sharing a dormitory, far from home. In this collection, thirty-seven southern African writers reflect on their boarding-school experiences, ranging from the 1910s to the 1990s. These eminent authors shined their shoes, played practical jokes on teachers and endured boarding-school food all over South Africa, but also in Namibia, Zimbabwe, and as far afield as Congo and the UK. Some went to mission schools, some to spartan government institutions and some to posh private establishments. But no matter who they were, they all had to obey bells and rules, walk in line, and learn to live with strangers. Cheesecutters & Gymslips is introduced by bestselling Spud author John van de Ruit. Contributing authors Alexandra Fuller Ann Harries Anthony Akerman Ashraf Johaardien Bessie Head Brian Chikwava Chris Barnard Dambudzo Marechera Don Mattera Doris Lessing EKM Dido Ellen Kuzwayo Es’kia (Ezekiel) Mphahlele Guy Butler Helena Gunter Imraan Coovadia Ivan Flint John van de Ruit Jonty Driver Kathryn White Lionel Abrahams Liz McGregor Maggie Resha Mamphela Ramphele Murray La Vita Simao Kikamba Nelson Mandela Patrick Cullinan Peter Abrahams Phyllis Ntantala Prue Leith Robin Malan Shimmer Chinodya Sihle Khumalo Stephen Gray Willemien le Roux William Plomer Z K Matthews From Cheesecutters & Gymslips, page 103 The dictionary says a hostel is ‘a place of lodging and nourishment’, but no hostel I’ve ever known has managed the nourishment bit. Food can’t nourish you if it’s inedible. At the hostels I’ve known the breakfast was enough to send any hotel guest packing. The lunch frequently caused anorexia. The supper would have driven the most hardened jailbird to trade his left arm for a hacksaw blade. And the coffee urn was blue with vitriol. That’s not what I call a place of nourishment. At most it was a roof over our heads. A room with a cot and a cupboard, a table and a chair. For some it was a place of pranks. For others a place of homesickness. But for everybody in the first and the last instance a place of hunger. To read on E-mail us a comment on this book. (Comments may be edited and used on this website.) To buy this book www.exclusivebooks.com www.kalahari.net home   writers   books   contact   buy   rights all content © Umuzi, Random House Struik this website designed and maintained by Guanaco.co.za