Book description
Explorer, novelist, writer and film-maker, Sir Laurens van der Post was
one of the most influential figures of our era. Here, in conversation
with Jean-Marc Pottiez, he records his ideas and insights into a wide
range of issues and personalities, forged by a lifetime of vast
experiences and challenges.
Laurens van der Post was born in Africa in 1906, the thirteenth of
fifteen children in a family of Dutch and French Huguenot origins.
Most of his adult life was spent his time divided between Africa and
England. His professions of writer and farmer were interrupted by ten
years of soldiering in the British Army, serving 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 Attache to the British Minister in
Java.
After 1949 he undertook several official missions exploring
little-known parts of Africa, and his journey in search of the Bushmen
in 1957 formed the basis of his famous documentary film and The
Lost World of the Kalahari. Other television films include
All Africa Within Us and The Story of Carl Gustav
Jung, whom he met after the war and grew to know as a personal
friend. In 1934 he wrote In a Provice, the first book by a
South African to expose the horrors of racism. Other books include
Venture to the Interior (1952), The Heart of the Hunter
(1961), and A Walk with a White Bushman (1986). The Seed
and the Sower was made into a film under the title Merry
Christmas, Mr Lawrence, and, more recently, A Story Like the
Wind and A Far-Off Place were combined and made into the
film A Far-Off Place.
Sir Laurens van der Post was awarded the CBE in 1947 and received
his knighthood in 1981. He died in 1996.
