Read here about the book :”Circles in the Forest” and about “Big Foot”…
Afrikaans…scroll down….
Dalene Matthee was one of South Africa’s most talented authors, the best popular novelist that I know….. She wrote mainly in Afrikaans, but many of her books were translated into 14 other lanuages, such as Italian, Hebrew, Spanish, German, French, English, Icelandic, etc. Two of her books were filmed, “Fiela’s Child” and “Circles in the forest”… Her first children’s novel…”Die Twaalfuur stokkie”… “The Twelve o’clock stick” was written in 1970. I LOVE this story and used to read the story to children in London-schools! They loved to listen to the Afrikaans Language and I explained the story via the pictures to them. It’s the best children’s story I’ve come across to explain to little children – age about 5-8 – the concept about time and the earth spinning around the sun… by using a stick in the sun. Read also about the memorial that was unveiled in Feb 2008 in honour of her!
Click HERE to read about Fiela’s Child, the movie.
Please click HERE to read about Dalene Matthee.
SA writers mourn Dalene Matthee
20/02/2005 21:20 – (SA)
Dalene Matthee – 1938-2005
Dalene Matthee dies
Laetitia Pople , Die Burger
Cape Town – “Maybe she just held out until her new book, Die Uitgespoeldes, and its translation was done,” Dalene Matthee’s daughter Amanda said on Sunday after the author died in her sleep. The 66-year-old Matthee died in the Bayview clinic, Mossel Bay, early on Sunday morning. She was admitted to the clinic for heart failure on Thursday.
The death of Matthee – who was especially well known for her forest trilogy, of which the first, Kringe in ‘n Bos (Circles in a Forest, first appeared in 1984 and was reprinted 22 times – is being described as a huge loss for the Afrikaans reading public. “She was one of the most well-loved popular novelists in Afrikaans. “With her books such as Kringe, Fiela se Kind (Fiela’s Child), Pieternella van die Kaap and, more recently, Toorbos, she got the general Afrikaans public reading again, and she successfully bridged the gap between quality and popular literature,” said Eloise Wessels, chief executive of NB Publishers, on Sunday.
Novelist Elsa Joubert agrees. “She succeeded in getting people who never read Afrikaans to read in the language, and that’s been a wonderful contribution,” she says. The literary expert Wium van Zyl believes she was like Langenhoven.
“Like him, she had something to offer the intellectual reader and for the everyday reader. “She exposed the reader to various challenges. She was an ecologist and a mild feminist who considered the poor with attention and respect.”
If there’s someone whom the entire South African writers’ community mourns today, it would be Matthee, said Abraham H de Vries. “The voice of one of the best storytellers has fallen silent.“Only she could have written those forest stories – no one else could.”
Film-maker Katinka Heyns, who directed the movie based on the book Fiela se Kind, remembers how she spent two hours with Matthee in the Knysna forest. “The forest would tell Dalene if I may make the movie. She did not say a word and only sat listening. “And then I had to wait an enitre night before she gave the answer.”
Matthee was famous for the rigorous research she did for her books. She researched only her forest trilogy (Kringe, Fiela and Moerbeibos) for seven years, and Pieternella took three years’ research.
Matthee’s books were translated into 14 languages, including French, German, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew and Icelandic. She won the ATKV prize for good popular fiction four times and was honoured with a Swiss literature prize for her “energetic literary work and her passionate interest in nature conservation” in Zurich in 1993. Die Uitgespoeldes is the story of Moses Swart, a foundling raised by an Afrikaans family after being found under a jacket on the beach. Matthee is survived by her three daughters, Amanda and Hilary Matthee and Toni van der Walt. Her husband, Larius, died two years ago.
Origninal news article HERE as it was reported in 2005.
The forest novels
Kringe in ‘n bos (Circles in a forest) (1984)
Fiela se Kind (Fiela’s Child) (1985)
Moerbeibos (The Mulberry Forest) (1987)
Toorbos (Dream Forest) (2003)
Other published works
Die twaalfuurstokkie (The twelve-o’-clock stick) (1970)
’n Huis vir Nadia (A House for Nadia) (1982)
Petronella van Aarde, burgemeester (Petronella van Aarde,Mayor) (1983)
Brug van die esels (The Day The Swallows Spoke) (1993)
Susters van Eva (Sisters of Eve) (1995)
Pieternella van die Kaap (Pieternella from the Cape) (2000)
Die Uitgespoeldes (Driftwood) (2005)
Dalene Matthee Memorial
Wow! I was sent SANPARKS-link by a blogger-friend, Chris after he’s read my post about Dalene Matthee and I want to thank him as this is really fantastic!
Dalene Matthee Memorial Unveiled at Wilderness National Park
On Saturday, 23 February 2008, close family, a few selected SANParks officials and the press witnessed the unveiling of a memorial in honour of the late writer, Dalene Matthee. It was Matthee ’s fervent wish to have her ashes scattered in the Knysna Forest and her three daughters saw it as a fitting remembrance to their mom, to have a special memorial erected in the place Matthee so loved.
“After three years this project has fallen into place and the family will be eternally grateful to the Wilderness National Park staff for making it all happen”, says Hillary Matthee, the writer’s youngest daughter.
SANParks contribution included the building of a boardwalk around the memorial, the renaming the big tree to the Dalene Matthee Big Tree and the marking of a circular hiking trail to the “Circles in a Forest” trail. The memorial, tree and trail will now form part of the park’s cultural heritage programme.
Matthee based many of her books, especially Fiela’s Child, Circles in a Forest and Moerbeibos on the life and people of the forest. Her books have been translated into 14 languages.
Dignitaries at the unveiling ceremony included Mvusy Songelwa (Regional Manager of the Garden Route National Parks) who unveiled the memorial, Edgar Nevuvhalani (People and Conservation Cultural Heritage Manager) and Dr. Razeena Omar (Executive Director: People and Conservation), who befittingly mentioned what an honour it is for SANParks to house a memorial for a woman who has done so much to bring nature and the forests to the hearts of all people who read her books.
The memorial, Big Tree and the Circles in a Forest Trail is situated at the Krisjan se Nek picnic site in the Goudveld Forest (close to Knysna), which now forms part of the Wilderness National Park. Jill Gordon, Park Manager, encourages all and especially school groups to come and pay homage to Matthee and explore the beauty of the forests
(Circles in the forest)
(Pieternella from the Cape)
(The Mulberry forest)
Nou wil ek meer oor van haar boeke – en ander skrywers se boeke – in Afrikaans se… omdat ek van dit self gelees het en self ook ‘n blibioteek-onderwyseres is – Ja, ek het vir 9 jaar uit 2 skole se mediasentrums klas gegee. Honderde boeke is aangekoop – wat ‘n voorreg om die skole se mediasentrum-begroting by Uitgewers te gaan spandeer! Dit was gewoonlik ‘n daguitstappie!
So is die volgende boeke dan van my gunstelinge vir kinders ouderdom 11-15/16…dalk ouer ook! Die Sakmense – Deur Maretha Maartens. Wat ‘n fantastiese boek. Miriam was ‘n meisie met’n donker gelaatskleur wie se familie onder “sakke” agter die landdroskantoor gebly het en hulle het groente en vrugte verkoop het om aan die lewe te bly. Thea was ‘n meisie met slegs een nier. Sy moet leer om met haar dialise-sakkie te leef, maar dis nog moeiliker om met haar skuldgevoel oor die weg te kom: sy weet sy is self daarvoor verantwoordelik dat haar ma se nier, wat kleintyd in haar oorgeplant is, heeltemal opgehou funksioneer het. Tog kan sy dit nie sê nie en intussen hou haar ma haar oupa daarvoor verantwoordelik.
Miriam is minderjarig en het nie die waarheid gepraat oor haar ouderdom nie. Dit was omdat sy haar familie wou help om onder die ‘sakke’ uit te kom en ‘n goeie lewe te he. Hulle het nie geld gehad vir skoolgaan nie en haar pa was slegs ‘n leegle-er en het niks gedoen om die familie te ondersteun nie.
Uiteindelik sou Thea en Miriam mekaar help, sodat elkeen kon leer hoe om haar sak weg te leef. Die boek is ‘n boek wat selfs die volwasse leser sal waardeer en geniet.
Sommige ander baie gewilde boeke onder die kinders: Die Boemelaars, Plek van die dolfyne, ‘n Pakkie mieliepitte, Die Inkvoel en Geagte mej Snob.
Marilee McCallighan se boek- Wedloop teen die wind” – is ‘n boek vir kinders so 12-15 jaar. Arno is die seun-karakter in die storie en sy pa was ‘n prokureur. Hy was ‘n puik atleet en toe skielik begin hy toe epileptiese aanvalle kry en moes hy na ‘n spesiale skool gaan, wat ‘n groot vernedering vir die pa en ma was – veral die ma! Hulle was gesiene mense in die omgewing en sy kon nie verwerk of aanvaar dat haar talentvolle seun dit moes oorkom en na so ‘n skool moes gaan nie.
Jy maak my nou baie lus om al my boeke wat ek nog nie gelees het nie, uit te haal en weer te begin lees. Wedloop teen die wind klink oulik, gaan bietjie kyk of ek dit kan opspoor in ons bib. 😉
Hi Zee… ek laat myself nou verlang vanaand na al daardie wonderlike boeke…selfs boeke soos “Die Koning se Wingerd”….hierdie boek het ek in my laaste jaar van studies gelees OP die eindeksamen en kon hom net nie neersit nie!!
Only a pleasure letting you know, I should have let you know earlier or blogged about the memorial when I saw it in the news. Different languages each have their own beauty, but what a pity about the border brought about thereby – last year, after not having read any of her works for quite a while, I read Toorbos and was so touched by it that I wrote a blog posting about it which I called ‘n Toorvrou se Toorboek, roughly translating to A Magic Womans Magic Book, so enchanted was I by her knowledge of the woods and her unique way of experiencing it.
In Afrikaans: Laasjaar het ek eendag ‘n vergadering bygewoon en lank in die verkeer vasgesit en geluister na ‘n boekvoorlesing uit die boek Sabbatsreis van Annelie Botes. Dit klink vir my bietjie ‘n hartseer boek, maar die stukkie wat ek gehoor het, het gegaan oor haar kontak as kind met Dalene Matthee, en as ek nou onthou het dit iewers gegaan oor die presiese ouderdom wat ek nou is – so ek behoort die boek te lees te kry voor my volgende verjaardag! En so miskien alle Dalene Matthee-bewonderaars.
Hi Kop… I will follow that link to read about Toorbos.. tks..!
Human&Rosseau het nog kantore in Hatfield
Hi Jasper… Dankie! Bly om te hoor hulle bestaan nog! Ek het ook by Nassau gekoop…ek dink dis hulle wat nie meer bestaan nie… ek’s ook nie seker nie, ek weet een van die handelaars waar ek gereeld gekoop het, was later oorgeneem deur ‘n ander en daar was ‘n naamsverandering…
Hi
Ek het hierdie inskrywing nou baie geniet. Dankie.
Hi Karlie! Ek’s bly en welkom op my blog.
[…] THIS LINK – on my blog – you can read about other childrens’ books I’ve blogged before and […]
Lekker inskrywing gewees die 😉
Hi Wipneus! Ek’s bly jy het dit geniet! Maar ek dink ek het ‘n fout in hierdie inskrywing gemaak…Koningskind is ‘n Daan Retief-boek, as ek reg onthou… 😉
[…] Hierdie link is ‘n oulike webbladsy oor Skrywers en Illustreerders.. This link has info on Dalene Matthee’s books and films. Books like Circles in the Forest, The Mulberry Forest, etc. This link will open in […]
I´ve already read Fiela´s child only.. because I´m nor used to read post-colonial literature, really I didn´t known her works!! but this novel is fantastic.. i WANTED TO READ MORE BOOK BY HER but in Argentina cannot find anyone else!!!
hi Ani! Welcome to my blog. Sorry to hear about your problem, you should really try and read her other novels too. I think you can order it through Amazon.com. Have you tried it? or any other site to order it? I’ve just checked it out and her books are available via Amazon.
Hallo Nikita,
Jy skryf jy het Dalene Matthee se Die Twaalfuurstokkie gekry. Waar? In Londen?
Ek kan dit nкrens vind nie… Kan jy help asb.?
Dankie by voorbaat en vriendelike groete–
Earl
Hi Walvisbaaier/Earl! Welkom hier op my blog. Ja, ek het hom gekry, maar dit is maklik 10 jaar gelede by ‘n konsultant/verteenwoordiger van ‘n uitgewer wat vir my boeke na my skoolmediasentrum gebring het – in SA!- waaruit ek kon kies. Toe ek die Twaalfuurstokkie sien, het ek besluit ek koop hom! – die skool het reeds een gehad, ouerig en met die mooiste prentjies in. Myne was natuurlik als in kleur en net so mooi, maar ai, daardie stokoue sou ek eerder wou gehad het. 🙂 Sterkte met jou soektog, ek weet glad nie of jy hom nog sal kry nie, probeer Kalahari. Ek sal bietjie self kyk ook en jou laat weet as ek iets kry. – Jammer, ek het ‘n “search” gedoen en kon niks kry nie! 😦