Many of you have got in touch about my way into writing this novel - I never intended to write this novel.
I had my heartbroken with the story of a murder of a boy - who looked like a long lost friend of mine. That boy was Raymond Buys, he was 15 when he was killed at Echo Wild Game Rangers camp in South Africa. I wrote about the contemporary history, The Boer War and the growing right wing power now.
Damian Barr celebrates animal bravery in wild tales about battles, cruelty and kindness.
Beavers are heroes, as any Narnia fan will tell you. Now the news confirms what we have known since meeting Mr and Mrs Beaver in CS Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Industrious rodents havebuilt six dams upstream of the flood-prone Devonshire village of East Budleigh. These have been slowing the flow of water during the recent storms, reducing pollution and restoring native wildlife, according to a local five-year study.
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Read MoreThis is the story of Raymond Buys, whose murder still haunts me. It’s the story of his family, his community and the culture of racism and toxic masculinity that saw him sent to a camp that promised to ‘make men out of boys’. The camp where he was tortured and killed. It’s the story of the rise of the far Right in South Africa and around the world and it’s linked to a hidden history and one of the most shameful episodes of Empire.
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