Audrey Bettie Blignault (July 6, 1916 – October 1, 2008) was a South African writer.

Life

The daughter of an Irish mother and an

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

father who was the town's mayor, she was born Audrey Bettie Swart in

Bredasdorp Bredasdorp is a town in the Southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the main economic and service hub of that region. It lies on the northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about south-east of Cape Town and north of Cape Agul ...

. She studied Afrikaans literature at Stellenbosch University, receiving an MA in Afrikaans and Dutch. In 1940, she began teaching at

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

and then later at Stellenbosch. In 1945, she became the editor of ''Die Huisvrou'', a women's magazine. In the same year, she started the first

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

book programme on

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

. For 25 years, she wrote a column for the Afrikaans women's magazine ''

Sarie ''Sarie'' is a South African women's magazine, written in Afrikaans. It is published by Media24, and is their oldest publication for women, first published in 1949 under the title ''Sarie Marais''. Based in Cape Town, it is the most popular ...

''. Essays from those columns were collected and published in 17 books. A collection of her letters ''Audrey Blignault: ’n Blywende vreugde'' was published in May 2008. Blignault also was editor for ''Naweekpos'' and directed the women's culture programme for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. Blignault died in a

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

clinic at the age of 92.

Family

She was married twice: first to Andries Blignault; he died in an automobile accident in 1967. She was seriously injured in the same accident but was the only survivor from the vehicle. She married Attie de Villiers in 1970. Her daughter Marié Heese also became a writer.

Awards and honours

She received the

Eugène Marais Prize The Eugène Marais Prize is a South African literary prize awarded by the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns for a first or early publication in Afrikaans. In 1971 it was renamed after the Afrikaans poet and researcher Eugène Marais. ...

in 1961, the

W.A. Hofmeyr Prize The Media24 Books Literary Awards (known before 2011 as the Via Afrika Awards, and before that as the Nasboek Literary Awards) are a group of five South African literary prizes awarded annually by Media24, the print-media arm of the South African m ...

in 1965 and the Italian

Adelaide Ristori Adelaide Ristori (29 January 18229 October 1906) was a distinguished Italian tragedienne, who was often referred to as the Marquise. Biography She was born in Cividale del Friuli, the daughter of strolling players and appeared as a child on the ...

Prize. In 1982, she received the State President's award for outstanding service. She was the first woman to be named to the board of the South African Academy for Science and Culture.

Selected works

* ''In klein maat'' Kaapstad, 1955. * ''Die vrolike lied'' (1957) * ''Met ligter tred'' (1962)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blignault, Audrey 1916 births 2008 deaths South African women writers South African women journalists Stellenbosch University alumni Afrikaans-language writers