Ratoons

About Daphne Rooke

Daphne Rooke (born 1914) was born in Boksburg Transvaal of an English father and Afrikaans mother and grew up in Durban. She later moved to Zululand where A Grove of Fever Trees her first novel was set. During the 1930s she worked as a journalist in South Africa. She married an Australian and moved there with him. Mittee was published in 1951 and became an international bestseller. It was followed in subsequent years by a series of striking novels on turbulent South African themes. Rooke ultimately moved to England and lived in Cambridge.