Professor Rosemary Gray says, “What distinguishes this biography is its readerly format; the narratorical skill of the writer that enables her to place herself, chameleon-like, into the very midst of her subject’s society – be this on the South African veld, or in England or Europe; and its imaginative projection of Olive into the 21st century and even into the milieu of the 2010 Fifa World Cup. By the end of the book one feels that one has somehow known Olive Schreiner personally, known this remarkable South African seeker of the Truth as one might have come to ‘know’ the other side of the moon. The style is direct and conversational but the content is, at the same time, impressively authoritative, drawing upon hitherto unpublished archival material melded with first-hand accounts of people who knew or who were associated with Olive. The author treats the immensely complex personage of Olive Schreiner with empathy but without sentimentality of judgement.”
Jenny Strickland