Occupation Novelist and poet Name Christopher Hope Nationality South African Role Novelist | Alma mater University of Natal Nominations Man Booker Prize Period 1970- | |
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Born February 26, 1944 (age 80)
Johannesburg, South Africa ( 1944-02-26 ) Subject Racism and politics in South Africa Notable works White Boy Running, A Separate Development, Kruger's Alp Education University of Natal, University of the Witwatersrand Books Kruger's Alp, My mother's lovers, Signs of the Heart: Love and, Darkest England, White boy running | ||
Christopher Hope, FRSL (born 26 February 1944) is a South African novelist and poet who is known for his controversial works dealing with racism and politics in South Africa.
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Life
Christopher Hope was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, to Dudley Mitford and Kathleen Margaret Hope. Hope was educated at the University of Witwatersrand and the University of Natal. He served in the South African Navy beginning in 1962. Hope married Eleanor Marilyn Margaret Klein 18 February 1967. The couple would eventually divorce. Hope worked briefly as a journalist before leaving on a "self-imposed" exile to London, England. His autobiographical piece, White Boy Running, chronicles this time of Hope's life.
Career
Hope's poetry was first published in Whitewashes, a poetry book that was released in 1971. In 1974, his poetry was published as Cape Drives, a collection of original prose. Hope's first novel, A Separate Development, was published in 1981. The novel was banned in South Africa for its overt criticisms of the Apartheid government.
Hope's second novel, Kruger's Alp, was considered a stark contrast to his first work. Kruger's Alp was described by the New York Times Book Review as "a novel in the form of a dream allegory". Despite its departure from Hope's earlier writings, Kruger's Alp was greeted with critical acclaim.
Hope's other novels include The Hottentot Room, Darkest England, and My Mother's Lovers. Hope has also penned a memoir entitled White Boy Running, several plays, and two pieces of juvenile fiction.
Awards
Over the course of his career, Hope has earned a number of prestigious writing awards. Cape Drives won Hope the Thomas Pringle Prize and a Cholmondeley Award. A Separate Development was the recipient of the David Higham Memorial Prize. Hope won the Whitbread Prize in 1984 for Kruger's Alp. Hope has also been awarded the Professor Alexander Petrie Award, the Silver Pen Award, and in 1992 shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize with Serenity House.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1990.