A Cape Town Boy

A Cape Town Boy:

A Memoir of Growing Up, 1940 to 1959

by Brian Clewly Johnson

Published by Createspace

The writer was two years old when he and his mother were captured by Japanese soldiers. For the next three years, he was imprisoned in a concentration camp near Shanghai, China. After repatriation to Britain in 1945, he lived with a variety of relatives. At age nine, he moved to South Africa and, for the next eight years, was educated at boarding schools. The regime at one particular school was harsh; he had to elude the attentions of predatory, cruel teachers. The country was then ruled by a Calvinist Afrikaner elite who embraced the concept of white supremacy; they believed 'non-whites' would always be 'hewers of wood and carriers of water' (as their Bible foretold). The world knew this system of government as apartheid, and it persisted for 45 years, until Nelson Mandela was freed. This memoir draws a picture of what it was like to live as a boy in that era. And how the experience shaped the writer as a young adult.

About the author

Brian Clewly Johnson (OG 1957) is an Englishman who was born in China and grew up in South Africa. At age 33, for reasons both political and personal, he left South Africa for good. In Britain, he worked for many years at a multinational advertising agency. His profession enabled him to travel worldwide. In 2002, he moved to the US, becoming an American citizen in 2008. He lives at a beach house in Amagansett, New York. He is the father of four children but is known as 'Oupa' to his five grandchildren. In 2004, he published a work of fiction, 'Deep Memory'.

Other titles by Brian Clewly Johnson

Letters for Josie:

Traveler's tales from a South African living in New York

31 July 2017

A Roller Coaster Man:

A Memoir of Ambition, 1960-1985

20 Jul 2016

Deep Memory

31 Dec 2004