There are few pastimes more pleasurable than curling up with a good book and losing yourself in another world. Books Editor Carol George spoke to Bryce Courtenay, one of Australia’s best-loved authors, about which stories inspired his own literary passion.
The only thing I ever stole in my life was a book. I was six years old and it was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, bound in wonderful red Moroccan leather. No one would read it in a million years — it was about the abolition of slavery — but it was magic because I learned to read with it.
I was born illegitimately in South Africa and raised in an orphanage. The first thing I ever remember is being hit. I had an English name, a terrible stigma at the time, because of the Boer War.
A temporary teacher called Miss Bornstein was the first person to take an interest in me. I trusted her and I asked her to help me read that stolen book. She must have thought there was something in this little kid, for she agreed. From then on, she sent me a book a month and it saved my life. Through books, I could escape the orphanage, in my head at least, and go anywhere a story took me.
Reading inspired me and I finished up winning a scholarship to a posh boarding school. Without reading, I’d have become a railway fettler or a drunk. I used to invent stories and serialise them for the bullies, in exchange for not being beaten. It was survival, so that’s where it all comes from.
The very first book I totally identified with was Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens, which I read when I was about nine years old. Like me, he was alone, poor and miserable. So here was this terrific story about someone in a hopeless situation, yet things turned out well. It gave me hope.
Probably the most beautiful book I’ve read is The Pearl by John Steinbeck. It’s very short — and I’ve read thousands of books since — but it was the first time I actually saw how beautiful words could be, how astonishing a story could be.
It’s a magnificent plot about a young Mexican couple who discover an incredible pearl. Greed is a theme, but in a way, it’s one of those stories that tells you everything about life. If you want to know the truth, there is one place you can go — books.
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