Jonty Driver

{{Infobox person

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| birth_name = Charles Jonathan Driver

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1939|08|19|df=y}}

| birth_place = Cape Town, South Africa

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2023|05|21|1939|08|19|df=y}}

| death_place = Bristol, England

| nationality =

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| education = St. Andrew's College

| alma_mater = {{Flatlist|*University of Cape Town

Trinity College, Oxford}}

| occupation = {{Flatlist|

| years_active =

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| notable_works =

| website = {{URL|jontydriver.co.uk/}}

}}

Charles Jonathan Driver (19 August 1939 – 21 May 2023), usually known as Jonty Driver, was a South African anti-apartheid activist, political prisoner, educationalist, poet and writer.

Early life

Charles Jonathan Driver was born in Cape Town in 1939 but spent the years of the Second World War in Kroonstad and Cradock with his mother and younger brother and his grandfather, who was the rector of the Anglican parish there. During this period, Driver's father did wartime service in North Africa, and was captured by the Axis forces at Tobruk, spending the rest of the war as a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany. When he came back to South Africa, the family moved to Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape, where his father was appointed chaplain at St. Andrew's College and where Jonty later did his schooling.{{sfn|SAHO}}{{sfn|Eve|2003|p=8}}

Student days

Driver did his undergraduate study at the University of Cape Town (UCT). He was elected president of the National Union of South African Students in 1963 and again in 1964. In August and September 1964, he was detained without trial by the police and held in solitary confinement for five weeks under the 90-day Detention Law, possibly because of his suspected involvement in the African Resistance Movement. On his release he immediately left for England.{{sfn|Theron|2004|p=105}} He went to Trinity College, Oxford, to study for an M.Phil.{{sfn|Eve|2003|p=8}}

While he was at Oxford, the South African authorities refused to renew his passport and he became stateless for several years, eventually becoming a British citizen. For more than twenty years, he was prohibited from returning to South Africa.{{sfn|Eve|2003|p=8}}

Work in education

After his time at Oxford, Driver taught at Sevenoaks School in Kent and then at Matthew Humberstone Comprehensive School in Lincolnshire (formerly Humberside){{sfn|SAHO}} after 1973, where he was Director of Sixth-Form Studies. He wrote Patrick Duncan: South African and Pan-African{{sfn|Driver|1980}} while on a sabbatical from the school in 1976 and before taking up his next appointment.{{sfn|Driver|2000}}

In 1976, he was a Research Fellow at the University of York, and for 23 years, he was a headmaster (Principal, Island School, Hong Kong, 1978–83; Headmaster, Berkhamsted School, 1983–9; Master, Wellington College, 1989–2000).{{sfn|Eve|2003|p=8}}{{sfn|Sleeman|2003|p=94–}}

Writing career

As of November 2019, Driver was a full-time writer, though he continued his involvement in education. Throughout his career, he published 10 books of poems (most recently Still Further: New Poems), five poetry booklets (the most recent one, A Winter’s Day at Westonbirt), five novels, five biographies and memoirs, and a book of verse for children.

Driver was, {{as of|lc=yes|November 2019}}, an honorary senior lecturer at the School of Literature and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia,{{cite web |url=https://people.uea.ac.uk/en/organisations/school-of-literature-drama-and-creative-writing(79327e54-f481-47ca-bbca-a31d2c4a96bd)/persons.html?page=5 |title=School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing |website=University of East Anglia |access-date=25 November 2019}} a post he held since 2007.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

Driver was a judge for the Caine Prize for African Writing, 2007 and 2008. He was a fellow of the Bogliasco Foundation in 2007. He was a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, USA, in the fall of 2009, and a fellow at the Hawthornden Writers' Retreat in March/April 2011.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

Personal life and death

Jonty Driver was married, with three children and eight grandchildren.{{Cite web |last=Skinner |first=Douglas Reid |date=2023-05-24 |title=Obituary: Charles Driver – farewell to a great man of letters |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-05-24-obituary-charles-driver-farewell-to-a-great-man-of-letters/ |access-date=2025-04-02 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}} He died on 21 May 2023, at the age of 83.{{cite web|url=https://www.wellingtoncollege.org.uk/news-events/jonty-driver-1939-2023/|title=Wellington College|date=23 May 2023}}{{Cite web |title=In memoriam: Jonty Driver 1939-2023 - OPINION {{!}} Politicsweb |url=https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/jonty-driver-an-obituary |access-date=12 June 2023 |website=www.politicsweb.co.za |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Skinner |first=Douglas Reid |date=24 May 2023 |title=OBITUARY: CJ 'Jonty' Driver – farewell to a great man of letters |url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-05-24-obituary-charles-driver-farewell-to-a-great-man-of-letters/ |access-date=12 June 2023 |website=Daily Maverick |language=en}}

Selected works

{{cite book |last1=Leftwich |first1=Adrian |author-link1=Adrian Leftwich |last2=Driver |first2=Jonty |author-link2=Jonty Driver |title=History of the Relations Between NUSAS, the ASB and the Afrikaans University Centres: Covering the Period 1960–1963. Supplement |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RQZQMwEACAAJ |year=1964 |publisher=National Union of South African Students |display-authors=0}} with Adrian Leftwich
{{cite book |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |title=Jack Cope |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AvxXo5r2n6EC |year=1979 |publisher=D. Philip |isbn=978-0-908396-11-5 |display-authors=0}}
{{Cite book |last=Driver |first=C. J |title=Patrick Duncan: South African and Pan-African |date=1980 |publisher=Heinemann |url=https://archive.org/details/patrickduncansou00driv |isbn=978-0-435-96200-5 |display-authors=0 |url-access=registration}}
{{Cite book |last=Driver |first=C. J |title=Patrick Duncan: South African and Pan-African |date=2000 |publisher=James Currey |edition=Paperback |isbn=9780852557730 |author-link=Jonty Driver |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SKPjtbXhwuoC |display-authors=0}}
{{cite book |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |title=Elegy for a Revolutionary |url=https://archive.org/details/elegyforrevoluti0000driv |url-access=registration |year=1984 |publisher=David Philip |isbn=978-0-86486-015-6 |display-authors=0}}
{{cite book |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |title=Hong Kong Portraits |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S7TeXwAACAAJ |year=1986 |publisher=Perpetua Press |isbn=978-0-9511667-0-3 |display-authors=0}}
{{cite journal |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |date=2002 |title=Used to be Great Friends |url=http://www.nivat.f2s.com/cjdriver.doc |journal=Granta |pages=7–26 |display-authors=0}}
{{cite book |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |title=So Far: Selected Poems, 1960–2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-EkgAQAAIAAJ |year=2005 |publisher=Snailpress |isbn=978-1-904724-27-8 |display-authors=0}}
{{cite book |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |title=A Messiah of the Last Days |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bBQNRQAACAAJ |date=2010 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-27000-2 |display-authors=0}}
{{cite book |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |title=Death of Fathers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=anr-ngEACAAJ |date=2011 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-26050-8 |display-authors=0}}
{{cite book |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |title=Send War in Our Time, O Lord |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fZwGQwAACAAJ |date=2011 |publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=978-0-571-25965-6 |display-authors=0}}
{{cite book |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |title=The Man with the Suitcase: The Life, Execution and Rehabilitation of John Harris, Liberal Terrorist |year=2015 |publisher=Crane River |location=Cape Town |isbn=9780620668521 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JNwUjwEACAAJ |display-authors=0}}
{{cite journal |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |title=Alan Paton's Hofmeyr |journal=Race & Class |volume=6 |issue=4 |year=1965 |pages=269–280 |issn=0306-3968 |doi=10.1177/030639686500600403 |s2cid=143844131 |display-authors=0}}
{{Cite web |title=Rhodes? The swine did some good |last=Driver |first=Jonty |work=Rand Daily Mail |date=20 March 2015 |url=http://www.rdm.co.za/politics/2015/03/20/rhodes-the-swine-did-some-good |display-authors=0}}
{{cite book |title=Some Schools |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |date=30 November 2016 |publisher=John Catt Educational |isbn=9781909717978 |url=https://www.bookdepository.com/Some-Schools-C-J-Driver/9781909717978 |display-authors=0}} (About the five schools at which Driver worked)
{{cite book |title=Before |last=Driver |first=C. J. |author-link=Jonty Driver |date=August 2018 |publisher=Crane River in association with the Africa Sun Press. |isbn=9781874915324 |url=https://www.afsun.co.za/product/before-a-sequence-of-poems/ |display-authors=0}} (A collection of 22 poems)

References

=Citations=

=Sources=

{{cite book |last=Eve |first=Jeanette |title=A Literary Guide to the Eastern Cape: Places and the Voices of Writers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uwFXGL059QgC&pg=PA8 |year=2003 |publisher=Juta and Company Ltd |isbn=978-1-919930-15-2}}
{{cite book |last=Sleeman |first=Elizabeth |editor=Europa Publications |title=International Who's Who in Poetry 2004 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JhXmEYWHDHYC&pg=PA94 |year=2003 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-85743-178-0}}
{{cite book |last=Theron |first=Bridget |title=The Road to Democracy in South Africa: 1970–1980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGE-XB5QlD8C&pg=PA105 |year=2004 |publisher=Unisa Press |isbn=978-1-86888-406-3}}
{{Cite web |title=Jonty Driver |work=South African History Online |access-date=11 August 2014 |url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/jonty-driver |ref={{sfnref|SAHO}}}}

=Further reading=

{{cite book|last=Beresford|first=David |title=Truth is a Strange Fruit: A Personal Journey Through the Apartheid War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-_BDPLRAXQ4C&pg=PA5|year=2010|publisher=Jacana Media|isbn=978-1-77009-902-9}}
{{cite journal|last1=Kline|first1=Benjamin|title=The National Union of South African Students: a Case-Study of the Plight of Liberalism, 1924–77|journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies|volume=23|issue=1|year=2008|pages=139–145|issn=0022-278X|doi=10.1017/S0022278X0005655X|s2cid=155036422 }}
{{cite journal|last1=Lodge|first1=Tom|title=Working in a South African Politics Department During the 1980s: Recollections|journal=Politikon|volume=40|issue=3|year=2013|pages=425–445|issn=0258-9346|doi=10.1080/02589346.2013.856570|s2cid=145445486}}
{{cite journal| last =Morlan| first =Gail| date =1970| title =Black and White Students Struggle for Freedom in South Africa and the United States| journal =Africa Today| publisher =Indiana University Press| volume =17| issue =3| pages =12–20

| jstor =4185088}}

{{cite journal|last1=Nagan|first1=Winston P|title=Truth, Reconciliation, and the Fragility of Heroic Activism|journal=Global Jurist Advances|volume=5|issue=1|year=2005|issn=1535-1661|doi=10.2202/1535-1661.1148|s2cid=144048368}}