Book description
Presented together now for the first time, Laurens van der Post's
collected writings will reveal as never before the fullness of his
perceptive, wise and remarkably consistent vision. In all of them his
inspiration has been that of an adventurous pioneer exploring not just
the outward aspects of a turbulent and troubled world but, at a deeper
level, the patterns and paradoxes of human life, the myths and dreams of
the human mind, the values and cultures of different peoples, the
elusive springs of our own people.
Laurens van der Post was born in South Africa in 1906, the thirteenth
of fifteen children in a family of Dutch and French Huguenot origins.
He grew up in the heart of Bushman country, a thousand miles from the
sea, before going on a long voyage to Japan that was a to prove a
formative experience and vital in later life. He settled in England in
the 1930s, writing and farming until the outbreak of the war, when he
joined the British army and served with distinction in the Western
Desert, Abyssinia, Burma and the Far East. Taken prisoner by the
Japanese, he was held in captivity for three years before returning to
active service as a member of Lord Mountbatten's staff in Indonesia
and, later, as military attaché to the British minister in Java.
Since 1949 he has taken part in many official expeditions and
missions to Africa, and his journey in search of the Bushmen in 1957
formed the basis of his famous documentary film, 'The Lost World of
the Kalahari'. Other television films he has made include 'A Region of
Shadow', 'All Africa Within Us'. And a three-part series on the life
and work of Carl Gustav Jung, whom he met after the war and grew to
know as a close personal friend. The highly acclaimed film 'Merry
Christmas, Mr Lawrence', released in 1983, was based on his book
The Seed and the Sower.
Laurens van der Post was awarded the C. B.E for services in the
field, and in 1980 he was knighted. With his wife, Ingaret Giffard,
Sir Laurens divides his time in England between his home in Chelsea
and a cottage in Suffolk.
