Toeckey Jones: BOKKIE
Toeckey Jones is a
friend and neighbour of mine on the Sussex coast. In the 1990s he published
three award-winning novels, set in his native South Africa. This year they have
been reissued.
Bokkie is set in 1960s Johannesburg where
19-year-old Sam Mane lives in some style with his mother, a celebrated star of
stage and screen. In the summer before he starts university Sam falls in love
with Pixie, a ‘Bohemian’ painter five years older than him, and they begin a
passionate affair. Pride of place in Pixie’s flat is given to her portrait of
Bokkie, a black boy from her childhood whose story she is reluctant to share.
Toeckey Jones vividly
evokes the heartless savagery of the Apartheid regime which casts a shadow over
Pixie’s life, past and present. The sounds and smells of Africa emerge strongly
from the author’s fluid prose. The era of Apartheid may be over but South
Africa is not yet a safe or a happy place for all its citizens and even less so for its wildlife.
This is a poignant and
timeless love story, beautifully told. Originally targeting Young Adults, Bokkie will capture the heart of
readers of all ages.
