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Born in 1939, Jonty Driver is a South African-born poet and novelist. He spent his early life in South Africa, and for two years was the outspokenly anti-Apartheid President of the National Union of South African Students. After being detained by the police on suspicion of involvement with the African Resistance Movement, Jonty was prohibited from entering South Africa for the next 20 years. He left for England, where he gained an MPhil at Trinity College, Oxford, and later became the headmaster of various schools in England and Hong Kong, most recently the illustrious Wellington College (1989-2000).
Jonty Driver now writes full-time, and he continues his involvement in education as a governor of several schools and Trustee of the Beit Trust. He has published six collections of poetry, most recently So Far, Selected Poems 1960-2004 (2005), as well as five novels and a biography. His latest book, Shades of Darkness (2004) was described by J. M. Coetzee as “a moving story of love, beautifully written”. He wrote the biography Patrick Duncan: South African and Pan-African (1980, re-published in 2000 by James Currey), which was immediately banned in South Africa, as were his first two novels, Elegy for a Revolutionary (1969, re-published by David Philip in 1990), and Send War in Our Time, Oh Lord. He has also written about education for The Daily Telegraph and contributes to the review sections of other periodicals, including The Times Literary Supplement. He is currently honorary senior lecturer in the School of Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.
Recent books:
Patrick Duncan: South African and Pan-African (James Currey: 2000)
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