I Never Learned to Dance: A South African Memoir of Abuse and Survival During Childhood

MJ, the youngest of three brothers, is born in the Zonderwater prisoner-of-war camp during the Second World War. ‘I never learned to dance’ is his chronicle of the three boys’ struggle to survive the on-going violence imposed by a pair of undisciplined parents, after the questionable death of their mother, and their father’s hasty marriage to a woman already bearing his child. The boys are rendered powerless by a conspiracy of silence and a corrupt and conniving father who has contrived to win over the police. Nevertheless, they fight back with resilience, creativity, humour and determination, in the belief, based on fleeting encounters in the world outside their home, that love, happiness, truth and beauty are an integral part of normality.