Radio’s world of books

Press, 17 November 1981, Page 19

Radio’s world of books

Listening

i For the white liberal opponent of apartheid in South Africa there is the complex dilemma — if he gives his support to the idea of a black revolution, what would his own situation be in a truly African South Africa? This question is at the core of Nadine Gordimer’s new novel, "July's People.” The July of the title is the African servant who takes his white “people” with him back to the bush when the revolution occurs and there a strange, but probably inevitable. reversal of roles and dependence occurs. Nadine Gordimer has long been con-

sidered’ perhaps the shrewdest and most delicate chronicler of South African society. She is asked on the 8.8. C. books programme (Concert, 7.00 tonight) how close she thinks the revolution there is. The prospective writer who feels he has a novel “in him” is helped make a start by the kindly, helpful guide “The Way to Write a Novel.” Author Paddy Kitchen has herself published seven novels. She passes on some of her advice for aspiring novelists on the programme. The Victorian story teller Rider Haggard was throughout his life obsessed with a mysterious dream-woman, an unattainable, untouchable goddess. In the novel "She,” the goddess Ayisha is portrayed as “the one who must be obeyed.” Haggard, however, was a discreet man, even in his private diaries. It has thus taken some diligent research by a new biographer, D. S. Higgens, to come up with a plausible identification of the dream woman.