Beverly Naidoo Donates Archive to Seven Stories

Seven Stories is delighted to have received the archive of Beverley Naidoo, author of Journey to Jo’burg which was chosen as one of the Top 50 books celebrating cultural diversity.

Beverly Naidoo has donated a large archive containing research notes, manuscripts correspondence and responses to her work, to Seven Stories, National Centre for Children’s Books.

Beverly said, “For a long time I've known that I must do something about my papers. Over 40 years, files and folders spread through our house. They filled up drawers, boxes under beds and shelves in the 'linen' cupboard. At one time, I stored stacks of papers in our loft until cracks appeared in our ceiling.”

“In 1996, Elizabeth Hammill and Mary Briggs bravely set up Seven Stories as a charity. They recognised the need for an institution in Britain that would 'collect, champion and celebrate its children's literature'. Their vision was bold and their project faced great challenges, especially funding. Of one thing I was sure: I wanted a home for my work that would accommodate its different 'legs' - creative, activist, academic. The work forms an integral whole.”

Speaking about her decision to write Journey to Jo’burg, she continued; “Early files, from the mid-1970s, contained papers dealing with bias in children's books. I remember my shock - and anger - at discovering that so many 'non-fiction' books about South Africa, in British schools and libraries, displayed the same narrow viewpoints and racist attitudes that I had experienced as a white child growing up under apartheid. Where were writers who showed what it might be like to be a black child in that society? I began closely examining these books and writing reviews. Why should children in Britain be so misinformed?”

Beverley’s first novel for children, Journey to Jo’burg, was published in 1985 and is a powerful portrayal of racism seen from a child's perspective, the book was banned in South Africa until 1991. A sequel, Chain of Fire, was published in 1989. No Turning Back (1995) was written after running workshops for young people in South Africa with theatre director Olusola Oyeleye. The Other Side of Truth (2000) was inspired in part by the execution of Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and tells the story of two Nigerian children who flee to London as refugees after their mother is killed.

In 2014, Journey to Jo’burg was chosen as one of the Top 50 children’s books celebrating cultural diversity. A distinguished independent panel of experts has come up with a list of 50 books for all children, from birth to teens, living in the UK today.

Seven Stories’ Collection development is being supported by Heritage Lottery Fund’s ‘Collecting Cultures’ programme.

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Seven Stories, Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle. NE1 2PQ.

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Notes to Editor:

Beverley Naidoo

Beverley Naidoo was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1943

She graduated from the University of Witwatersrand in 1963. Her involvement with the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa led to her being imprisoned in solitary confinement for eight weeks at the age of 21. She left for England in 1965 and studied at the University of York with the help of a United Nations Bursary, training to become a teacher. She taught both primary and secondary children in London for 18 years. She obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Southampton in 1991 and worked as Adviser for Cultural Diversity and English in Dorset. She has tutored Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and run workshops for young people and adults in Britain and abroad, including for the British Council. She married another South African exile and returned freely to South Africa for the first time in 1991.

Her first novel for children, Journey to Jo'burg, was published in 1985. A powerful portrayal of racism seen from a child's perspective, the book was banned in South Africa until 1991. A sequel, Chain of Fire, was published in 1989. No Turning Back (1995) was written after running workshops for young people in South Africa with theatre director Olusola Oyeleye. The Other Side of Truth (2000) was inspired in part by the execution of Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and tells the story of two Nigerian children who flee to London as refugees after their mother is killed.

Her collection of stories Out of Bounds (2001), with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, covers six decades of South African history under apartheid and after the first democratic elections. She has also written picture books and collaborated with her daughter Maya on Baba's Gift (2003). Her first play, The Playground, was produced by the Polka Theatre in London in 2003 and was named a Time Out 2004 Critics' Choice.

Beverley Naidoo's most recent novels are Web of Lies (2004), a sequel to The Other Side of Truth; Burn My Heart (2007); and Call of the Deep (2008).

In 2011, two further picture books, S is for South Africa and a re-telling of Aesop's Fables were published.  Her latest title is ‘Who is King?’ illustrated by Piet Grobler, comprises a selection of retellings of African tales, and will be published in April.