Braving the Dark in Writing for Young People

Braving the Dark in Writing for Young People Beverley Naidoo (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution In early 1980s Britain, it took over two years to find a publisher for my first children’s book, Journey to Jo’burg. Some turned it down because they believed that the journey of two black South African children in search of their mother would not interest young British readers. Others said that I had created a mismatch by writing in too simple language about a topic that was only suitable for older readers. It eventually found a publisher thanks to the persistence of Ethel de Keyser, the remarkable director of the British Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa who had previously run…