Brenda George

Brenda George has been a freelance editor, a literary agent, a convenor of novel writing workshops and a novel writer of longstanding. She was born in South Africa, but grew up with her parents and three sisters in the little copper-mining town of Luanshya in Northern Rhodesia/Zambia. She met and married Eddie George there, and they emigrated to South Africa, settling in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. The couple had no children and later got divorced. Brenda edited the international best seller, “A Man Cannot Cry”, and the recently released “The Divine Dawning”, both of which were written by her sister, Gloria Keverne. Her sister’s first book took 20 years to write. “A Man Cannot Cry” became an instant international best seller in the eighties, when it was widely compared to “Gone with the Wind” and “The Thornbirds”. Gloria’s second book (“The Divine Dawning”), 22 years down the line, has magically coincided with the publication of Brenda’s first, “Falling leaves and Mountain Ashes”. The two sisters even received their proofs at the same time. Gloria’s book was released nationwide just three weeks before Brenda’s. Surely a publishing first for two writing sisters of such long duration?

Gloria always maintained that Brenda could write, but Brenda claimed she had no imagination whatsoever and was born to edit “A Man Cannot Cry” – which turned out to be an eleven-year editorial saga. Then in 1982, she had two very powerful realistic dreams, one week apart. The first dream gave her, her main characters (interestingly, they were all Americans in the dream), and the second, her story. The day after the second dream, she started writing and she hasn’t stopped since. With all the wonderful storytelling ability of her sister, Brenda has written the thoroughly researched “Falling Leaves and Mountain Ashes”, a magnificent epic tale set against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Researched (and partly written) since 1982, it took Brenda 7 years to write. “Falling Leaves and Mountain Ashes” is the 4th novel Brenda has written, but is the first in a 5-book series. Her other two completed books in the series are “Harlem Road” and “The Shades of Hell”, which are the third and fourth books of the series respectively. She is about midway through the second book of the series, entitled “Song of the Shenandoah” and has partly written “Cry of the Soul”, the last book in the series.

Brenda worked in a bank from the time she left school, but resigned in 1990, to fulfil her dream of finishing a novel she had started in 1982. She gave herself a year to do it, and paid for everything in advance with the cash payout of her pension, so she wouldn’t run out of money before time. Alas, she only finished the novel in 1999 – 17 years to the day from when she started it. By that time it had grown to such immense proportions, she had to cut it in two, which ultimately became “Harlem Road” and “The Shades of Hell".