Diepkloof: Reflections of Diepkloof Reformatory

Everyone knows that Alan Paton wrote Cry the beloved country. What is less well-known is that he was also a courageous and innovative educationalist – the man who pulled up the barbed wire fences at Diepkloof Reformatory and planted geraniums instead. This collection, edited by Clyde Broster, is a series of reflections drawn from his heartfelt experiences during his thirteen years as Principal of Diepkloof Reformatory. Included are short stories, autobiography, drama and poetry in which he looks back with a kind of gentle astonishment at events that took him as a young schoolmaster from Natal to be Principal at this previously gloomy institution. Misgivings, fears, successes, failures – all are dramatically mirrored, as is his determination to test whether a firm compassion and a measure of freedom might be more effective than harshness and close confinement, in the treatment of young delinquents.