ABRAHAMS, Peter
Peter Lee Abrahams was born at Vrededorp, near Johannesburg in South Africa, 19 March 1919. He became an outstanding novelist, short-story writer and journalist. After attending St Peter’s Secondary School in Johannesburg, he emigrated to England in 1939 and worked for the London Observer while writing several radio scripts for the BBC’s Third Programme during the 1950s. He then settled in Jamaica, British West Indies, where he worked for the rest of his days as a journalist and broadcaster while editing the West Indian Economist. His numerous books included Dark Testament, a collection of short stories published in 1942; Song of the City (1945); Mine Boy (1946); The Path of Thunder (1948); Wild Conquest (1951); Tell Freedom (1954); A Wreath for Udomo (1956); Jamaica: An Island Mosaic (1957); A Night of Their Own (1965); This Island Note (1966) and A View from Coyaba (1985). Mine Boy established him as one of the leading African novelists, though Wild Conquest was perhaps the finest of all his fiction. Abrahams’ writing did much to draw international attention to the harsh realities of black life in South Africa during the days of apartheid and most of his books have been translated into many languages.