Comments on: The White Kudu by Gisela Hoyle

By: Lakshmi Raj Sharma

Lakshmi Raj Sharma — Sat, 23 May 2009 01:17:05 +0000

I am highly impressed with the way you created your characters. The amount of control your characters had on you is phenomenal. I think Dickens has mentioned a similar thought about his characters somewhere.
I don’t know whether this happens to you as well, but when I write a novel I take it to three fourths of its length and then the characters take it to the conclusion. In the beginning there is only a hazy idea of what the end is to be. The characters decide the final and finer points that are to make up the conclusion.
Lakshmi

By: Fiona

Fiona — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 10:34:12 +0000

Gis,
Finally the perfect ‘job’. Reading The White Kudu in its published form will be more than a pleasure, it will be a journey back to a Pniel which has haunted me (mostly in a nice way) since I read the first draft of your book. Your honesty and courage shines through in your work and I can’t wait to read whatever you chose to write next. Keep in touch!
Love Fiona

By: Gisela Hoyle

Gisela Hoyle — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:09:56 +0000

Danke, Line: I hope so!

By: Karoline Meylahn-Sohl

Karoline Meylahn-Sohl — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 18:03:27 +0000

Thank you, Gis! Words can have no meaning – or mean the whole world: describe different worlds, reactivate memories, make experiences, places ,feelings and so much more shareable…
While reading your blogs I was constantly reminded of what the “little Prince” said: “man sieht nur mit dem Herzen gut”- you wrote “with your heart” and will share it with all who read “The White Kudu”

Hug Line

By: Gisela Hoyle

Gisela Hoyle — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 03:12:27 +0000

Hey Pippa – the finding of diamonds is a fun bit of History, with some great charcaters, like Barnato and Rhodes. I look forward to a DMC soon, which might include Empire building and mineral wealth.

Thanks for a lovely comment.

By: Pippa Smyth

Pippa Smyth — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:18:50 +0000

Hi Mrs Hoyle,

Just studying the find of diamonds in South Africa in History in the context of the British Empire… cant wait to see your take on it, and also the other themes you mention accompanying it.

Along with Lauren, I love your thoughts on places. All places have personal memories – I hope your new move to Leicester will give you as good memories and times as South Africa did.

Cant wait to read it
Pippa

By: Gisela Hoyle

Gisela Hoyle — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 04:20:00 +0000

Hi Cathy and Dan

Thanks for your comments. I shall definitely look up Jacklyn Cook and Nick Roos.

By: Cathy Tuson

Cathy Tuson — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:46:36 +0000

The comments and images evoked by the discussion of the book remind me very much of the work of a south african artist, Nico Roos, which imply the pull and kind of cosmic interchange between human, earth and sky. His images are well worth a look-I really wished when I left SA that I’d had enough dosh to buy one.

By: Dan Wylie

Dan Wylie — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:37:40 +0000

Gisela, This looks, from your summary discussion of it, like a really interesting addition to our growing literature on South AFrica’s natural world – and not in some romanticised fashion, but in its connections and conflicts with human power structures and economics. At our recent Literature & Ecology Colloquium (the 6th), author and activist Jacklyn Cock urged us to think and act more vigorously against the human activities, both economic and political, that make appreciation of natural beings so difficult and also so precious. It looks like this is a useful and timely way of thinking our way towards these ssues, and I really look forward to reading The White Kudu.

By: Gisela Hoyle

Gisela Hoyle — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 03:38:53 +0000

Hi all

Lauren, I am sure you will find a great answer for yourself about the book.

Richard, what you say about deserts is exactly right and far better put than I did: encounter and wonder.
And Caroline: it is a mixture of imagination, fiction, real and dream-experiences – I’ll venture more about that in the next blog.