I'm pleased to announce that my book Guy Butler: Reassessing a South African Literary Life (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press) is now available.

Read more about it below.

I've also taken this opportunity to post a cover image of Text Bites (Oxford University Press, 2009), a multi-genre South African literary anthology I compiled for high school learners.

Watch this space for news on an exciting publication coming out with Wits University Press in April!

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Guy Butler was a substantial public figure in South Africa over the second half of the twentieth century: professor, poet, playwright, autobiographer, historian and cultural politician. Nevertheless, his is not a familiar name to the majority of South Africans and – where he is known – Butler remains a problematic figure.

Even before his death in 2001, he was seen as a “grand old man” in South African literature rather than as a writer for a new generation of readers. Yet much of Butler’s writing was (and still is) subversive and intellectually compelling; it has enduring literary value. His response to the South African situation presents us with a challenge: to acknowledge frankly those elements in his work that distance him from us, without losing sight of the significance it holds.

This book makes use of Butler’s private correspondence and unpublished archive material, combining biographical insight with criticism of his publications in various genres to offer a balanced explication of his life and work.