“More than fifty years ago South Africa’s most important newspaper opined that
southern Africa was blessed in having three such wonderful young women writers
as Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer and Daphne Rooke. Of the three, it believed,
the best was clearly Rooke.” The TLS, July 2006
The Toby Press is delighted to be issuing new editions of Daphne Rooke’s remarkable and
timeless novels. We expect that a new generation of readers will appreciate and relish some
of the finest South African writing of the last century.
It is Zululand in the 1870s; a bloodthirsty Zulu king is
embroiled in bitter war with the English. Witches dwell in
every cave and wizards are abroad in every village. The son
of the chief of the Tshanini tribe, Benge, is a frail cripple,
but he is believed by some to be a magic dwarf, a person
set apart, with strange powers. This superbly written novel,
originally published in 1957, is the story of Benge, leader of
men, caught in a body too small for his heart. It is a tale
that bridges the emotional barrier between the reader and
the Zulus with greater passion and precision than any factual
accounts can achieve.
About the Author
 DAPHNE ROOKE (born 1914), was born in Boksburg, Transvaal, of an English father
and Afrikaans mother, and grew up in Durban. She later moved to Zululand, where A
Grove of Fever Trees, her first novel, was set. During, the 1930s she worked as a journalist
in South Africa. She married an Australian and moved there with him. Mittee was
published in 1951 and became an international bestseller. It was followed in subsequent
years by a series of striking novels on turbulent South African themes. Rooke ultimately
moved to England, and lives in Cambridge.
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The Critics Praise:
“More than fifty years ago South Africa’s most important newspaper opined that
southern Africa was blessed in having three such wonderful young women writers
as Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer and Daphne Rooke. Of the three, it believed,
the best was clearly Rooke.” The TLS, July 2006
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