Christopher Hope,

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(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. His son is violinist

Daniel Hope Daniel Hope (born 17 August 1973, Durban, South Africa) is a European classical violinist. Early life and education Hope was born in Durban, South Africa, and is of Irish and Jewish German descent, his maternal grandparents, formerly from Be ...

Life

Christopher Hope was born in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

, South Africa, to Dudley Mitford and Kathleen Margaret Hope. Hope was educated at the

University of Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...

and the

University of Natal The University of Natal was a university in the former South African province Natal which later became KwaZulu-Natal. The University of Natal no longer exists as a distinct legal entity, as it was incorporated into the University of KwaZulu-N ...

. He served in the

South African Navy The South African Navy (SA Navy) is the naval warfare branch of the South African National Defence Force. The Navy is primarily engaged in maintaining a conventional military deterrent, participating in counter-piracy operations, fishery prot ...

beginning in 1962. Hope married Eleanor Marilyn Margaret Klein on 18 February 1967. He is the father of the violinist

. The couple would eventually divorce. Hope was a founder of the literary magazine ''Bolt'', in 1972, and worked part-time as a literary journalists for the Durban-based ''Sunday Tribune'' and as an advertising copywriter. Hope published two collections or poems at this time: ''Whitewashes'' (1970) (with Mike Kirkwood) and ''Cape Drives'' (1974). His poetry was suppressed by the South African censors in the 1970s and he left South Africa in 1975 for "self-imposed" exile in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. His satirical first novel, ''A Separate Development'', was banned on publication in South Africa in 1977 for its acid portrait of life under apartheid. His memoir, ''White Boy Running'', chronicles this time of Hope's life. While living in London, Hope was a contributor to the BBC, and to various newspapers including ''The Guardian'', ''Les Temps Modernes'', ''The New Yorker'' and ''The Independent''. In 2006 Hope founded the Franschhoek Literary Festival in South Africa and in 2012 he co-founded the Hermanus Fynarts Festival. In 2014 he wrote the libretto for the musical drama ''A Distant Drum'', commissioned and performed at Carnegie Hall.

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 Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

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 ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'' 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 from various journals, including ''The New Statesman'', ''New Society'' and the ''Daily Telegraph''. Hope's other novels include ''The Hottentot Room'', ''Darkest England'', ''My Mother's Lovers'' and ''Jim Fish''. Hope's memoir ''White Boy Running'' was published in 1988. In 2017 he was a fellow at the Stellenbosch International Academy for Advanced Study. His work includes essays, stories and plays for radio and, most recently, a portrait of the new South Africa in the post-apartheid years, ''The Cafe de Move-On Blues'' (2018).

Awards

Over the course of his career, Hope has earned a number of prestigious writing awards. ''Cape Drives'' won Hope the

Thomas Pringle Award The Thomas Pringle Award is an annual award for work published in newspapers, periodicals and journals. They are awarded on a rotation basis for: a book, play, film or TV review; a literary article or substantial book review; an article on English ...

and a

Cholmondeley Award The Cholmondeley Awards () are annual awards for poetry given by the Society of Authors in the United Kingdom. Awards honour distinguished poets, from a fund endowed by the Dowager Marchioness of Cholmondeley in 1966. Since 1991 the award has bee ...

. ''A Separate Development'' was the recipient of the David Higham Memorial Prize. Hope won the

Whitbread Prize The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

in 1984 for ''Kruger's Alp''. Hope has also been awarded the Professor Alexander Petrie Award,

PEN International PEN International (known as International PEN until 2010) is a worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere. The association has autonomous Internationa ...

's Silver Pen Award, and the

CNA Award The Central News Agency Literary Award (CNA Literary Award, CNA Prize) was a major annual literary award in South Africa. It was named for the CNA chain of bookstores. Founded by Phillip Stein, it recognised works in prose and poetry, and in both t ...

for ''White Boy Running'' (1989). ''Serenity House'' was shortlisted for the 1992

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a Literary award, literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United King ...

. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

in 1990.

Selected bibliography

Books

* ''Whitewashes'' 1970 * ''Cape Drives'' 1974 * ''A Separate Development'' 1977 * ''Private Parts & Other Tales'' 1981 * ''In the Country of the Black Pig'' 1981 * ''Kruger's Alp'' 1985 * ''The Hottentot Room'' 1986 * ''Black Swan'' 1987 * ''White Boy Running'' 1988 * ''My Chocolate Redeemer'' 1989 * ''Moscow! Moscow!'' 1990 * ''Serenity House'' 1992 * ''The Love Songs of Nathan J. Swirsky'' 1993 * ''Darkest England'' 1996 * ''Me, the Moon and Elvis Presley'' 1997 * ''Signs of the Heart: Love and Death in Languedoc'' 1999 * ''Heaven Forbid'' 2001 * ''Brothers Under the Skin: Travels in Tyranny'' 2003 * ''My Mother's Lovers'' 2007 * ''Shooting Angels'' 2011 * ''Jim Fish'' 2015
French translation
2017 • "The Café de Move-on Blues" 2018.

Book reviews

* Review of André Brink, ''A Fork in the Road'' (2009),

References

External links

Christopher Hope at the Biography Resource Center

Christopher Hope at Contemporary Writers

Interview with Christopher Hope
in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

''
Christopher Hope at the Biography Reference Bank
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hope, Christopher Living people 1944 births 20th-century South African poets South African male novelists Afrikaner people University of the Witwatersrand alumni Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature South African male poets 20th-century South African male writers