Shirley, Goodness & Mercy is a heart-warming, yet compellingly honest story about a young boy growing up in the coloured townships of Newclare, Coronationville and Riverlea during the apartheid era.

Despite Van Wyk’s later becoming involved in the struggle, this is not a book about racial politics. Instead, it is a delightful account of one boy’s special relationship with the relatives, friends and neighbours who made up his community, and of the important coping role laughter and humour played during the years he spent in bleak and dusty townships.

In Shirley, Goodness & Mercy Chris van Wyk – poet, novelist and short story writer – has created a truly remarkable work, at once both thought-provoking and vastly entertaining.

Funda indaba emangazayo yeqhawe langempela lesikhathi sethu uthole ukuthi umfanyana oncane owaqanjwa uyise ngokhuthi "unkathazo" wakhula kanjani ukuze alwe nabandlululo, waba ngumongameli wokuqala omnyama waseNingizimu Afrika wakhankasela inkululeko nobulungiswa emhlabeni wonke.

Agnes, the Van Wyks’ Zulu housekeeper, had a special friendship with young Chris in the late sixties to early seventies. He would defend her whenever she came to work with a hangover on a Monday morning and made a mess of the cleaning. In turn, Agnes never told on Chris when he played truant from school. As the years passed, the two grew closer, swopping stories about coloureds and Zulus, life in Riverlea and Soweto, pass laws, politics and falling in love. She taught him to count in Zulu and he promised to teach her to read in English. Whenever the clock ran against her, Agnes would stop almost in mid-sentence, grab a broom or cloth, and declare: ‘I have to rush. I have eggs to lay, chickens to hatch.’ What an odd, ungrammatical thing to say, Chris often mused. But many years later, he played a CD by Louis Jordan, a 1940s American jazz singer, and it all became clear. Eggs to lay, chickens to hatch (forthcoming end April 2010) is Chris van Wyk’s second childhood memoir about growing up in Riverlea and his colourful interactions with the men and women who lived the African proverb that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. But mostly it is the story of a wonderful friendship between a young coloured boy and a Zulu.

Apartheid is responsible for hunger, homelessness and death. However, the worst crime of apartheid is that it made black people believe they were inferior to white people. Steve Biko was someone who never believed this lie. He showed black people that they had a culture and a history of which they should be proud. Biko's powerful ideas became known as Black Consciousness and spread throughout the country. Black people took notice - and stood up in their thousands to challenge the apartheid monster. Biko died in detention in 1977. His ideas, however, lived on. In this book, you will meet Steve Biko the young boy, the student, the activist and the proud father of Black Consciousness. They Fought for Freedom tells the life stories of southern African leaders who struggled for freedom and justice. In spite of the important roles they played in the history of southern Africa, most of these leaders have been largely ignored by the history books. The series tells their stories in an entertaining manner, in clear language and aims to restore them to their rightful place in history.

Chris van Wyk’s first (and only) book of poems, It Is Time to Go Home, was published in 1979 when he was just 22. He went on to become a well-known and much-loved writer of memoirs, biographies, and children’s stories. But he continued to write poems; some were published in literary magazines and some in his autobiographical book Shirley, Goodness & Mercy (2004).

This volume brings together a selection of these poems, along with a substantial selection from his first book.

A hundred years ago, a small settlement sprang up in theNorthern Cape. A rich diversity of people moved in, as the children were born, Vatmaar became a village. A. H. M. Scholtz tells of Oom Chai, who in turn tells of a Vuurmaak, who in turn introduces someone else. Thus a chain of stories is created interlinking the fates of unforgettable characters like Lance-Corporal George Lewis and his Tswana wife, Rush, Sis Bet, Old Chetty, Hendruk, January, Tant Vonnie and her daughters as they recount tales of the Anglo-Boer War, the diamond diggings, court cases and stokvels: the tricksters and the tricked, marriages and funerals, love and betrayal. A Place Called Vatmaar is a panoramic novel: compelling, wise and humane.

Mr Hare meets Mr Mandela is one of the last stories Chris van Wyk wrote before he died and it originally appeared in Sunday Times Storytime: 10 South African Stories for Children. Mr Hare finds a R200 note on his doorstep. When he turns the note over he sees Mr Mandela’s face and decides to brave the big city of Johannesburg to return it to Mr Mandela. But Mr Hare cannot read and he comes across many people along the way who want to get their hands on Mr Mandela’s money. Mr Hare also cannot work out why the note keeps changing colour!

Mr Hare Meets Mr Mandela is one of the last stories Chris van Wyk wrote before he died and it originally appeared in the Sunday Times Storytime: 10 South African Stories for Children. Mr Hare finds a R200 note on his doorstep. When he turns the note over he sees Mr Mandela’s face and decides to brave the big city of Johannesburg to return it to Mr Mandela.

But Mr Hare cannot read and he comes across many people along the way who want to get their hands on Mr Mandela’s money. Mr Hare also cannot work out why the note keeps changing colour!

Chris o rata nkgonwae Ruby. O rata ho etela ha hae ho ya kga dimurubeie tshimong ya hae le ho ya e tsa metlaele ho bina le bo motswalae. Chris o rata haholo ha nkgonwae Ruby a ya le yena toropong ho ya kgetha dibuka lebenkeleng la dibuka tse kileng tsa sebediswa. Jwale ka tsatsi le leng a elellwa hore Nkgono Ruby o na le lekunutu. Chris loves his Ouma Ruby and he loves visiting her house. But Chris especially loves it when his Ouma Ruby takes him into town to the second-hand bookshop. Then one day Chris learns that Ouma Ruby has a secret.

Mr Hare Meets Mr Mandela is one of the last stories Chris van Wyk wrote before he died and it originally appeared in the Sunday Times Storytime: 10 South African Stories for Children. Mr Hare finds a R200 note on his doorstep. When he turns the note over he sees Mr Mandela’s face and decides to brave the big city of Johannesburg to return it to Mr Mandela.

But Mr Hare cannot read and he comes across many people along the way who want to get their hands on Mr Mandela’s money. Mr Hare also cannot work out why the note keeps changing colour!

Chris o rata nkgonwae Ruby. O rata ho etela ha hae ho ya kga dimurubeie tshimong ya hae le ho ya e tsa metlaele ho bina le bo motswalae. Chris o rata haholo ha nkgonwae Ruby a ya le yena toropong ho ya kgetha dibuka lebenkeleng la dibuka tse kileng tsa sebediswa. Jwale ka tsatsi le leng a elellwa hore Nkgono Ruby o na le lekunutu. Chris loves his Ouma Ruby and he loves visiting her house. But Chris especially loves it when his Ouma Ruby takes him into town to the second-hand bookshop. Then one day Chris learns that Ouma Ruby has a secret.

Mr Hare Meets Mr Mandela is one of the last stories Chris van Wyk wrote before he died and it originally appeared in the Sunday Times Storytime: 10 South African Stories for Children. Mr Hare finds a R200 note on his doorstep. When he turns the note over he sees Mr Mandela’s face and decides to brave the big city of Johannesburg to return it to Mr Mandela.

But Mr Hare cannot read and he comes across many people along the way who want to get their hands on Mr Mandela’s money. Mr Hare also cannot work out why the note keeps changing colour!