Janice Warman is a South African–born journalist whose career spans the Observer, the Guardian, the Spectator, the Daily Mail, and the BBC. She has published two nonfiction books for adults, including The Class of ’79, about three students who risked their lives to help abolish apartheid.Warman's latest novel is The World Beneath.
From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: How did you come up with the idea for The World Beneath, and for your main character, Joshua?Follow Janice Warman on Twitter.
A: I had always been keen to write about apartheid for children who had grown up in a world in which it no longer existed. I felt that like the Holocaust of the Second World War, it should never be forgotten. And as racism and xenophobia are still prevalent in the world, the subject remains timely.
The inspiration for my main character, Joshua, was the daughter of our housekeeper, Beauty, whose name I use for Joshua’s mother in the book. I was aware that Beauty had children of her own who lived far away with their grandparents, while she cleaned our house and took care of us.
Then her little girl came to visit, and although I was quite young myself, I remember trying to teach her to read, and reflecting how Beauty must miss her, when my mother had...[read on]
My Book, The Movie: The World Beneath.
--Marshal Zeringue