Lesley Beake
Lesley Beake (born 1949) is a Scottish-born South African children's author.
Life About Lesley Beake
[edit]Lesley Beake was born in Scotland and went to school in Edinburgh She lives in South Africa, where she has worked as a teacher. Her children's novels, "which address the plight of children of certain tribes in southern Africa, attract an adult audience."
Early life and education
[edit]Lesley Beake was born in Scotland in 1949 and later moved to Southern Africa, where she spent much of her childhood in countries including Zambia and South Africa.[1]
She studied education and worked as a teacher before becoming a full-time writer.[2]
Career
[edit]Beake began publishing fiction in the 1980s and became recognized for writing stories centered on children and adolescents navigating social and cultural change in Southern Africa.[3]
Her novel Song of Be received international attention and won several literary awards for its portrayal of a San girl living in the Kalahari Desert.[4]
Works
[edit]- Detained at Her Majesty's pleasure: the journal of Peter David Hadden, 1986
- The Strollers, 1987. Winner of the Percy FitzPatrick Award, 1986-1988, Winner of the Young African Award, 1987-1988
- A Cageful of Butterflies, 1989. Winner of the Percy FitzPatrick Award, 1988-9. Winner of the M-Net Book Prize, 1991.
- Rainbow, 1989
- Traveller, 1989
- Merino, 1989
- Serena's Story, 1990
- Tjojo and the wild horses, 1990
- Song of Be, 1991
- Bau and the baobab tree, 1992
- Mandi's wheels, 1992
- The Race, 1992
- Café Thunderball, 1993
- One dark, dark night, 1993
- Jakey, 1997
- An Introduction to Africa, 2000
- Home Now, 2006
- Remembering Green, 2009
References
[edit]- ↑ "Lesley Beake Biography". Penguin Random House South Africa. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
- ↑ "Lesley Beake". South African History Online. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
- ↑ "Lesley Beake". NB Publishers. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
- ↑ "Song of Be". WorldCat. Retrieved 27 May 2026.
- Yearwood, Emerging into Independence:The Self and the Culture in Lesley Beake's Song of Be, The Alan Review 24:3 (Spring 1997)
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- 1949 births
- Living people
- South African women novelists
- South African children's writers
- South African women children's writers
- British women children's writers
- 20th-century South African novelists
- 20th-century Scottish women writers
- 21st-century South African novelists
- 21st-century Scottish women writers
- Writers from Edinburgh
- Scottish emigrants to South Africa
- South African writer stubs