AustLit

'Bryce Courtenay talks about his early family life in Barberton, South Africa; the Boys Farm school, Duiwelskloof; his family; the theories relating to different life approaches of coastal people, mountain people and plains people; family myths; his mother's high expectation for her son; the exploits of his ancestors, dating back to the Crusades; the impact of childhood poverty on his life; winning a scholarship to a prestigious boy's school in South Africa and the weight of family expectations on him; his adolescent years at secondary school; his relationship with mother who had discovered religion through the Assembly of God church; leaving school and planning for his future education; funding his education, working in an underground copper mine in Northern Rhodesia, as a 'grizzly man'; leaving South Africa after questioning apartheid; studying journalism in London; working his passage to Australia; his first glimpses of Sydney and the first people he met [around 1955]; early years working in Sydney; being offered work at an advertising agency and within 5 years being creative director of the McCann Erickson agency; his marriage and three sons; his son's battle with haemophilia and death.

'Courtenay discusses the years between, 1960-1980; at the age 45 (1978) vowing to quit bad habits and get fit; his back operation and immobilization and planning the next phase of his life which was to start his own ad agency, run it for 10 years, sell it to a multinational then become a world famous writer; how his rehabilitation involved swimming and running; marathon running; his theories about life as a business leader; selling his advertising agency; working as the creative director for George Patterson advertising; at night, writing his first book 'The Power of One', his late night writing regime; Jill Hickson; the publishing rights being put up for auction in New York, the process; negotiating the film rights for the book; literary criticism; his second novel 'Tandia'; the causes of racial disharmony in South Africa and Australia; racial tolerance; cross cultural understanding; his story telling devices, imparting a message of hope; human evolution relating to creative process; the role of the right and left sides of the brain; theories about aboriginal dreaming; memory and fiction; storytelling being fundamental to humanity.' (Trove)