Beverley Naidoo crafts tough teenage fiction. Much of her writing is inspired by the personal challenges young people face because of politics around them - for instance, as a street child in South Africa in No Turning Back, as a refugee in London in The Other Side of Truth, or as young South Africans of different backgrounds, all facing dramatic choices in her collection of stories Out of Bounds.

THE BASICS

Born Johannesburg, South Africa, May 21st 1943
Jobs NGO worker, Teacher, Education Adviser
Lives Bournemouth
First Book Journey To Jo'burg, 1985

THE BOOKS

Born in South Africa, Beverley Naidoo grew up as a white child under apartheid - the racist system that denied equality and justice to black South Africans. As a student she became involved in resistance to apartheid and, at 21, was detained under the notorious ‘Ninety Days’ law. Beverley was exiled from South Africa in 1965 and came to England, where she married another South African (who was also an exile).

Beverley began writing her first novel in the UK when her children were six and ten. While Journey To Jo'burg won awards in the UK and USA, it was banned in South Africa until 1991. To write its sequel Chain of Fire, she immersed herself in materials smuggled out of the country by journalists, photographers and researchers. After Nelson Mandela’s release from jail, she was able to return freely and in 1993 spent six weeks with theatre director Olusola Oyeleye running drama and writing workshops with young South Africans, including street children. She returned to South Africa a year later with a final draft of No Turning Back, to gather responses from some of the same young people.

Research for The Other Side of Truth took her to London, exploring life for young people forced overnight to become refugees. In the novel, 12 year-old Sade and her brother Femi, children of an outspoken journalist, are smuggled to London to escape General Abacha’s gunmen. They find themselves alone in a new - often hostile - environment. Beverley deftly weaves together themes of political oppression, exile, Africa and childhood. The Other Side of Truth won the Smarties Silver Medal in 2000 and is shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2001. Beverley’s collection of short stories, Out of Bounds (Foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu) spans the apartheid era to present day “post-apartheid”, with one story per decade. Her characters are caught up in a system forcing them to live apart as Blacks, Whites, Indians and ‘Coloureds’. However, shining through the conflict, are acts of bravery that keep hope alive within the ‘rainbow’ country.

WHAT SHE SAYS...
"Like my schooling, my reading as a white child in South Africa did nothing to challenge the complacency of white domination. But there was one book relating to another great crime that affected me deeply... The Diary of Anne Frank... I recall identifying strongly with the teenage Anne, imagining myself subjected to Nazi terror, not once suspecting that I myself was part of a system engaged in its own kind of ethnic cleansing."

"For me the question was always: how can I convey such brutal abuse of power without losing my young readers' hopes and beliefs that there can be other ways in which human beings relate to each other?"

"There is a rather fashionable view in the West that if you start off writing with strong political intent you will inevitably write fiction badly because your message will predominate. I take a less fashionable view that politics with a small 'p' does not preclude writers from creating good fiction... as long as they take their craft seriously."

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT BEVERLEY NAIDOO...
“Sometimes you have to break the rules, particularly when those rules are based on prejudice. Naidoo breaks the rules, producing books for young people which recognise that they want to know about the real world.”
The Guardian

"Written with valuable insight, gritty but optimistic, this is a totally believable, absorbing read." The Guardian on 'No Turning Back'

"It is a tribute to Naidoo's talent that she makes you realise that this is not the end of Sipho, just one stage in the emerging complexity of his life and that of his new country."
TES on No Turning Back

“A wonderfully accessible story laced with powerful messages of family commitment and human rights. Beverley Naidoo’s own South African origins and subsequent exile in London provide heartfelt spine to this book.”
Jon Snow of Channel 4 on The Other Side of Truth

“Genuinely enlightening… gently moves the reader through areas that are hard to think about. This is a future classic, and satisfying for all readers.”
Times Educational Supplement on The Other Side of Truth

“I was surprised by the intensity of my feelings as I read these stories… Alfred Hitchcock would have been in his element.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Out of Bounds

“There is a quiet dignity and compassion about the writing, and the stories are immensely moving. Read this with your child at nine or 10 and it will stay with them forever.”
The Guardian on Out of Bounds

AWARDS
The Other Side of Truth
Winner of the Carnegie Medal 2001
Smarties Children’s Book Award 2000 - Silver Medal
Arts Council of England Writers’ Award for work-in-progress 1999

No Turning Back
African Studies Association Children's Book Award for Older Readers 1998 (USA)
International Reading Association Teachers Choices, 1998 (USA)
Josette Frank Award (Child Study Children's Book Committee Award)1998 (USA)
Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies 1998 (USA)
Book Trust 100 Best Books of 1997
Shortlisted for The Guardian Fiction Prize 1996
Shortlisted for the Smarties Prize 1995

Chain of Fire
‘Vlag en Wimpel’ Award 1991 (Holland)
American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults list 1991 Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies 1990 (USA)
Shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal 1990
Shortlisted for the Smarties Prize 1989

Journey to Jo’burg
Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies 1986 (USA)
Parents’ Choice Honor Book for Paperback Literature 1986 (USA)
Child Study Children's Book Committee Award1986 (USA)
The Other Award 1985

Bibliography supplied by Penguin Books
Last updated: July 2002