Sir Laurens Jan van der Post (aka Laurens van der Post) (December 13, 1906 – December 16, 1996) was a famous 20th century Afrikaner author of many books, farmer, war hero, political adviser to British heads of government, godparent of Prince William, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer, and conservationist. Events 1294 - Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months Celestine hoped to return to his previous life Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Philippolis is a small town in the Free State province of South Africa. The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after this nation first occupied (1900 and then annexed (1902 the independent Orange Free State in the Events 755 - An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Philippolis is a small town in the Free State province of South Africa. The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after this nation first occupied (1900 and then annexed (1902 the independent Orange Free State in the Grey College is a public school for boys located in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa. Bloemfontein (ˈbluːmfɒnteɪn Afrikaans and Dutch for "spring of Bloem (bloom" Events 1294 - Saint Celestine V abdicates the papacy after only five months Celestine hoped to return to his previous life Year 1906 ( MCMVI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting Events 755 - An Lushan revolts against Chancellor Yang Guozhong at Fanyang, initiating the An Shi Rebellion Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) The term Afrikaner people refers to white Afrikaans -speaking people who have been established in Southern Africa since the 17th century and are mainly of northwestern A Book is a set or collection of written printed illustrated or blank sheets made of Paper, Parchment, or other material usually fastened together A farmer is a person who raises living organisms for food or raw materials A hero (from Greek grc ἥρως hērōs) in Greek mythology and Folklore, was originally a Demigod, the offspring of a mortal and The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's Baptism. A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends Humanitarianism is an active belief in Humanism (the idea of the value of human life whereby Humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language The conservation movement also known as nature conservation is a political social and to some extent scientific movement that seeks to protect natural resources including

Early years

Van der Post was born in the small town of Philippolis in the Orange River Colony, a British colony in what is today South Africa. Philippolis is a small town in the Free State province of South Africa. The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after this nation first occupied (1900 and then annexed (1902 the independent Orange Free State in the The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa ^[1] His father, Christian Willem Hendrik van der Post (1856–1914), of Dutch origin, had arrived in South Africa at the age of three and later married van der Post's mother in 1889. The Dutch people ( Dutch:) are the dominant Ethnic group of the Netherlands. Her name was Lammie and she was of German origin. The family had a total of fifteen children, with van der Post being the thirteenth, the fifth son. Christiaan was a lawyer and politician, and fought in the Second Boer War against the British. See also First Boer War,, South African Wars (1879-1915 The Second Boer War ( Dutch: Tweede Boerenoorlog, Afrikaans: After the Second Boer War he was exiled with his family to Stellenbosch, where Laurens was conceived. Stellenbosch (ˈstɛlənbɒs is the second oldest European settlement in the Western Cape Province, South Africa after Cape Town, and is situated They returned to Philippolis in the Orange River Colony, where he was born in 1906.

He spent his early childhood years on the family farm, remembering how he became a fan of reading books from his father's extensive library which included Homer and Shakespeare. Homer ( Ancient Greek:, Homēros) is a legendary ancient Greek epic Poet, traditionally said to be the author of the epic poems the William Shakespeare ( baptised In August 1914 his father died and then in 1918 van der Post went to school at Grey College in Bloemfontein. Year 1914 ( MCMXIV) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Grey College is a public school for boys located in Bloemfontein, Free State, South Africa. Bloemfontein (ˈbluːmfɒnteɪn Afrikaans and Dutch for "spring of Bloem (bloom" There it was a great shock to him that he was "being educated into something which destroyed the sense of common humanity I shared with the black people". In 1925 he took his first job as a reporter in training at The Natal Advertiser in Durban, where his reporting included his own accomplishments playing on the Durban and Natal field hockey teams. The Daily News is a newspaper owned by Independent News and Media and published in Durban, South Africa. Durban (eThekwini is the third most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the EThekwini metropolitan municipality. Field hockey is a Team sport in which players attempt to score goals by hitting the Ball across the pitch with a stick In 1926 he and two other rebellious writers, Roy Campbell and William Plomer, published a satirical magazine called Voorslag (English: whip lash) which promoted a more racially integrated South Africa; it lasted for three issues before being forced to shut down because of its radical views. William Charles Franklyn Plomer (he pronounced the surname as ploomer) (1903–1973 was a South African author known as a novelist poet and literary editor English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States ^[2] Later that year he took off for three months with Plomer and sailed to Tokyo and back on a Japanese freighter, the Canada Maru, an experience which produced books by both authors later in life.

In 1927 Van der Post met Marjorie Edith Wendt (d. 1995), daughter of the founder and conductor of the Cape Town Orchestra. They traveled to England and on March 8, 1928 married at Bridport, Dorset. Bridport is a town in Dorset, England. Located near the Coast at the Western end of Chesil Beach at the confluence of the rivers Dorset ( (or archaically, Dorsetshire) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast A son was born soon after on December 26, named Jan Laurens (later known as John). In 1929 van der Post returned to South Africa to work for the Cape Times, a newspaper in Cape Town, where "For the time being Marjorie and I are living in the most dire poverty that exists," he wrote in his journal. Cape Town (Kaapstad Xhosa: Ikapa) is the second most populous city in South Africa, forming part of the metropolitan municipality of the He began to associate with bohemians and intellectuals who were opposed to James Hertzog (Prime Minister) and the white South African policy. James Barry Munnik Hertzog better known as JBM Hertzog (born 3 April 1866 near Wellington Cape Colony - died 21 November 1942 in Pretoria, The Prime Minister of South Africa was the Head of government in South Africa between 1910 and 1984 He wrote an article entitled 'South Africa in the Melting Pot' which clarified his views of the South Africa racial problem, he said "The white South African has never consciously believed that the native should ever become his equal. " But he predicted that "the process of leveling up and inter-mixture must accelerate continually . . . the future civilization of South Africa is, I believe, neither black or white but brown. "

In 1931 he returned to England and formed friendships with members of the Bloomsbury group including Arthur Waley, J. M. Keynes, E. M. Forster and Virginia Woolf. The Bloomsbury Group was an English collectivity of loving friends and relatives who lived in or near London during the first half of the twentieth century Arthur David Waley CH ( August 19, 1889 &ndash June 27, 1966) was a noted English Orientalist and Sinologist John Maynard Keynes 1st Baron Keynes CB (ˈkeɪnz "cains" (5 June 1883 &ndash 21 April 1946 was a British Economist whose ideas Edward Morgan Forster OM, CH (1 January 1879–7 June 1970 was an English novelist Short story writer Essayist, and Librettist (Adeline Virginia Woolf (née Stephen; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941 was an English Novelist and Essayist, regarded as one of the foremost Virginia and her husband Leonard Woolf were publishers, and had previously published William Plomer's works, and it was through Plomer's connections that van der Post gained introduction to the Woolfs and the Bloomsbury Set. Leonard Sidney Woolf ( November 25, 1880 &ndash August 14, 1969) was a noted British political theorist author publisher and civil servant The Bloomsbury Group was an English collectivity of loving friends and relatives who lived in or near London during the first half of the twentieth century

In 1934 the Woolfs published van der Post's first novel under the Hogarth Press label. The Hogarth Press was founded in 1917 by Leonard and Virginia Woolf. Called In a Province, it portrayed the tragic consequences of a racially divided South Africa. Later that year he decided to become a dairy farmer and, possibly with the help of Lilian Bowes Lyon, bought a farm called Colley Farm, near Tetbury, Gloucestershire, with Lilian as his neighbor. Lilian Bowes-Lyon (or Bowes Lyon) (1895 - 1949 was a British poet Tetbury is a town and Civil parish within the Cotswold district of Gloucestershire, England. History See also History of Gloucestershire Gloucestershire is a historic county mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in the 10th century There he divided his time between the needs of the cows and occasional visits to London where he was a correspondent to South African newspapers. He considered this a directionless phase in his life which mirrored Europe's slow drift to war. In 1936 he made five trips to South Africa and during one trip he met and fell in love with Ingaret Giffard (d. 1997), an English actress and author five years his senior. Later that year his wife Marjorie gave birth to a second child, a daughter named Lucia, and in 1938 he sent his family back to South Africa. When the Second World War started in 1939 he found himself torn between England and South Africa, his new love and his family; his career was at a dead end, and he was in depressed spirits, often drinking heavily. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

War years

Cover of Admiral's Baby (1996), a portrait of van der Post during the war years.

In May 1940, van der Post volunteered for the British Army and upon completion of officer training in January 1941 he was sent to east Africa in the Intelligence Corps as a Captain. The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. There he took up with General Wingate's Gideon Force which was tasked with restoring the Emperor Haile Selassie to his throne in Abyssinia. Major-General Orde Charles Wingate, DSO and two bars ( February 26, 1903 &ndash March 24, 1944) was a The Gideon Force was a small British -led African regular force which acted as a Corps d'Elite amongst the irregular Ethiopian forces fighting the Italian Haile Selassie I ( Ge'ez: am ኃይለ፡ ሥላሴ "Power of the Trinity " 23 July 1892 &ndash 27 August 1975 born Tafari Makonnen, was NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page His unit led 11,000 camels through difficult mountain terrain and he was remembered for being an excellent caretaker of the animals. Camels are Even-toed ungulates within the Genus Camelus. The Dromedary, one-humped or Arabian camel has a single hump and the In March he came down with malaria and was sent to Palestine to recover. Malaria is a vector -borne Infectious disease caused by Protozoan Parasites It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions including The Palestine Mandate, was a set of protocols or articles that formed a multilateral legal and administrative agreement

In early 1942, as Japanese forces invaded South East Asia, van der Post was transferred to Allied forces in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), because of his Dutch language skills. The Empire of Japan ( {{unicode|Kyūjitai}}: ja 大日本帝國 Shinjitai: ja 大日本帝国 pronounced Dai Nippon Teikoku The Pacific War was the part of World War II —and preceding conflicts—that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands and in East Asia, between The American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA Command, code name ABDACOM, was a short-lived supreme command for all Allied forces in South East Asia, in See http//enwikipediaorg/wiki/WikipediaFootnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the tags and the template below He was given command of Special Mission 43, the purpose of which was to organise the covert evacuation of as many Allied personnel as possible, after the surrender of Java. This article concerns the land battle of Java in 1942 For the preceding naval battle see Battle of the Java Sea.

On April 20, 1942, he was captured by the Japanese. He was first taken to camps at Sukabumi and then to Bandung. Sukabumi is a city and regency in the highlands of West Java, Indonesia, about 80 km (50 miles south of the national capital Jakarta. Bandung (bʌndʊŋ is the capital of West Java province in Indonesia, and the country's fourth largest city Van der Post was famous for his work in maintaining the morale of personnel of many different nationalities. Along with others, he organised a "camp university" with courses from basic literacy to degree-standard ancient history, and he also organized a camp farm to supplement nutritional needs. He could also speak some basic Japanese, which helped him greatly. Once, depressed, he wrote in his diary: "it is one of the hardest things in this prison life: the strain caused by being continually in the power of people who are only half-sane and live in a twilight of reason and humanity. " He wrote about his experiences in A Bar of Shadow (1954) and The Seed and the Sower (1963). Japanese film director Nagisa Oshima based his film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1982) on these books. Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence ( Senjou no Merii Kurisumasu, aka Furyo in many European editions is a 1983 film directed

Following the surrender of Japan, while his fellow POWs were repatriated, van der Post remained in Java, and on September 15, 1945 he joined Admiral William Patterson on HMS Cumberland for the official surrender of the Japanese in Java, to British forces representing the Allies. The surrender of Japan in August 1945 brought World War II to a close William (or Bill) Patterson may refer to William Patterson (engineer (1795-1869 19th century engineer and boatbuilder Career Cumberland served on the China Station with the 5th Cruiser Squadron from 1928 until 1938 returning to the UK in March 1935 for a refit

Van der Post then spent two years helping to mediate between Indonesian nationalists and members of the discredited Dutch colonial regime. He had gained trust with the nationalist leaders such as Mohammad Hatta and Ahmed Sukarno and warned both Prime Minister Clement Attlee and the Allied Supreme Commander in South East Asia, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, whom he met in London in October 1945, that the country was on the verge of blowing up. Mohammad Hatta ( August 12, 1902 - March 14, 1980) was born in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, Dutch East Indies (now Sukarno ( June 6, 1901 – June 21, 1970) was the first President of Indonesia. Clement Richard Attlee 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC ( 3 January 1883 &ndash 8 October 1967 South East Asia Command (SEAC was the body set up to be in overall charge of Allied operations in the South-East Asian Theatre during World War II. Admiral of the Fleet Louis Francis Albert Victor Nicholas Mountbatten 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, KG, GCB, OM, GCSI, Van der Post went to The Hague to repeat his warning directly to the Dutch cabinet. In November 1946, British forces withdrew and Van der Post became military attaché to the British consulate in Batavia. Jakarta (also DKI Jakarta) is the Capital and largest city of Indonesia. By 1947, after he had returned to England, the Indonesian Revolution had begun. Timeline of the Indonesian National RevolutionThe Indonesian National Revolution or Indonesian War of Independence was an armed conflict and diplomatic struggle between

That same year, Van der Post retired from the army and was made a CBE. The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British Order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V.

Rise to fame

With the war over and his business with the army concluded, van der Post returned to South Africa in late 1947 to work at the Natal Daily News, but with the election victory of the National Party bringing in apartheid he came back to London. The National Party ( Afrikaans: Nasionale Party) (with its members sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats) was the governing party of In May 1949 he was commissioned by the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC) to "assess the livestock capacities of the uninhabited Nyika and Mulanje plateaux of Nyasaland". The Mulanje Massif, also known as Mount Mulanje, is a large Monadnock in southern Malawi near the city of Blantyre, rising sharply from the surrounding The History of Malawi covers the area of present-day Malawi. The region was once part of the Maravi Empire.

Around this time he divorced Marjorie, and on October 13, 1949 married Ingaret Giffard. Before he married Ingaret, he had become engaged to Fleur Kohler-Baker, the daughter of a prominent farmer and businessman, who was seventeen years old; they had met on a ship with an intense but brief affair of love letters, and so she was shocked when he broke off the relationship. He went on a honeymoon with Ingaret to Switzerland where his new wife introduced him to Carl Jung. Jung was to have probably a greater influence upon him than anybody else, and he later said that he had never met anyone of Jung's stature. He continued to work on a travel book about his Nyasaland adventures called Venture to the Interior, which borrowed on the structure of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, 3 December 1857 – 3 August 1924 was a Polish-born English novelist Heart of Darkness is a Novella written by Polish-born writer Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski)

Cover of The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958)

In 1950 Lord Reith (head of the CDC) asked van der Post to head an expedition to Bechuanaland, to see the potential of the remote Kalahari Desert for cattle ranching. The Bechuanaland Protectorate (BP was a protectorate established on March 31, 1885, by the United Kingdom in Southern Africa. A ranch is an area of landscape including various structures given primarily to the practice of ranching the practice of raising grazing livestock such as Cattle There van der Post for the first time met the Kalahari natives, a hunter-gatherer bush people known as San. The Bushmen, San, Sho, Basarwa, ǃKung or Khwe are indigenous people of southern Africa that spans most areas of South Africa He repeated the journey to the Kalahari in 1952, the same year Venture to the Interior was published, and it became an immediate best-seller in the US and Europe. In 1954 he published his third book Flamingo Feather, an anti-communist novel about a Soviet plot to take over South Africa, which sold very well. Alfred Hitchcock planned to film the book, but lost support from South African authorities and gave up the idea. Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE (13 Penguin Books kept Flamingo Feather in print until the collapse of the U.S.S.R.. Penguin Books is a British Publisher founded in 1935 by Allen Lane. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 In 1955 the BBC commissioned van der Post to return to the Kalahari in search of the bushmen, a trip that turned into a very popular six-part television documentary series in 1956. In 1958 his most famous book was released under the same title as the BBC series: The Lost World of the Kalahari, followed in 1961 by The Heart of the Hunter, derived from 19th-century Bushmen stories by Wilhelm Bleek. Wilhelm Heinrich Immanuel Bleek ( March 8, 1827 - August 17, 1875) was a German linguist.

Van der Post described the bushmen as the original natives of southern Africa, outcast and persecuted by all other races and nationalities. He said they represented the "lost soul" of all mankind, a type of noble savage myth. In the eighteenth-century cult of " Primitivism " the noble savage, uncorrupted by the influences of civilization was considered more worthy more authentically noble This mythos of the Bushmen inspired the colonial government to create the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in 1961 to guarantee their survival, and the reserve became a part of settled law when Botswana was created in 1966. Central Kalahari Game Reserve is an extensive national park in the Kalahari desert of Botswana. The Republic of Botswana (Lefatshe la Botswana is a Landlocked nation in Southern Africa.

Later years

Cover of Storyteller. . by J. D. F. Jones, picture of van der Post in his later years.

Van der Post's fame and success was now assured. He had become a popular television personality, had introduced the world to the Kalahari bushmen, and was considered an authority on Bushmen folklore and culture. "I was compelled towards the Bushmen," he said, "like someone who walks in his sleep, obedient to a dream of finding in the dark what the day has denied him. " Over the next decade he had a steady stream of book releases, including novels drawn from his war experiences, The Seed and the Sower (1963) and The Night of the New Moon (1970). A travel book called A Journey into Russia (1964) described a long trip through the Soviet Union. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 In 1972 there was another BBC television series of his 16-year friendship with Jung, who died in 1961, which was followed by the book Jung and the Story of our Time (1976).

Ingaret and he moved to Aldeburgh, Suffolk where they became involved with a circle of friends that included an introduction to Prince Charles, whom he then took on a safari to Kenya in 1977 and with whom he had a close and influential friendship for the rest of his life. Aldeburgh ( IPA /ˈɔlbrə/ is a town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England; it is located on the Alde river at 52° 9' North 1° 36' East Suffolk (ˈsʌfək is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. SAFARI was an attempt by the French government under the presidency of Georges Pompidou, to create a centralized database of personal data The Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the north Somalia to the northeast Tanzania to the south Also in 1977, together with Ian Player,a South African conservationist, he created the first World Wilderness Congress in Johannesburg. Dr Ian Player DMS (born 1927 Johannesburg) is an international conservationist The World Wilderness Congress is the longest-running public international environmental forum and is the flagship project of The WILD Foundation Johannesburg ( Pronounced /jō-hān'ĭs-bûrg'/ is the largest city in South Africa. In 1979 his Chelsea neighbor Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister and she called on his advice with matters dealing with southern Africa, notably the Rhodesia settlement of 1979–80. Chelsea is an area of south-west London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along Margaret Hilda Thatcher Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925 This article is about the government position For other uses see Prime Minister (disambiguation. Rhodesia was the name adopted when the formerly British colony of Southern Rhodesia declared itself independent ( Unilateral Declaration of Independence In 1981 he was given a Knighthood. The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system.

In 1982 he fell and injured his back and used the downtime from tennis and skiing to write an autobiography called Yet Being Someone Other (1982), which discussed his love of the sea and his journey to Japan with Plomer in 1926. By now Ingaret was slipping into senility, and he spent much time with Frances Baruch, an old friend. In 1984 his son John (who had gone on to be an engineer in London) died, and van der Post spent time with his youngest daughter Lucia and her family.

Even in old age van der Post was involved with many projects, from the worldwide conservationist movement, to setting up a centre of Jungian studies in Cape Town. He remained a captivating speaker and storyteller both in public and in private. In 1996 he tried to prevent the eviction of the Bushmen from their homeland in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, which had been set up for that purpose, but ironically it was his work in the 1950s to promote the land for cattle ranching that lead to their eventual downfall and removal. In October 1996 he published The Admiral's Baby describing the events in Java at the end of the war. For his 90th birthday party he had a five-day celebration in Colorado, with a "this is your life" type event with friends from every period of his life. A few days later, on December 16th, 1996, after whispering in Afrikaans "die sterre" (the stars), he died. The funeral took place December 20th in London, attended by Prince Charles (who was photographed in tears) Lady Thatcher, Nelson Mandela and many friends and family. His ashes were buried in a special memorial garden at Philipolis on April 4th, 1998. Ingaret died five months after him on May 5th, 1997.

Controversy

After his death a number of writers tried to discredit van der Post. It was revealed that in 1952 he had fathered a child with a fourteen-year-old girl who had been under his care during a sea voyage to England from South Africa. His reputation as a 'modern sage' and 'guru to Prince Charles' was questioned and journalists opened a floodgate of examples of how van der Post had not always told the truth in his books. A Floodgate Effect refers to a generic situation where a small action can result in a far greater effect with no easily discernible limit These facts came together in the 2001 book by J. D. F. Jones Teller of Many Tales: The Lives of Laurens van der Post, an authorised yet hostile biography which damaged van der Post's reputation. ^[3] A rebuttal was offered by Christopher Booker, a friend of van der Post. ^[4][5] While Jones's book did interpret a darker side to van der Post's life, it did not diminish his popularity and he continued to strike a chord with many people. Nor could many of his wartime accomplishments and his conservation efforts be easily dismissed.

Selected works

Works mentioned in the article. For an extensive complete list see External links.

• In a Province, 1934
• Venture to the Interior, 1952
• Flamingo Feather, 1955
• The Lost World of the Kalahari, 1958 (BBC 6-part TV series, 1956)
• The Heart of the Hunter, 1961
• The Seed and the Sower, 1963
• A Journey into Russia, 1964 (US title: A View of All the Russias)
• The Night of the New Moon, August 6, 1945. . . Hiroshima, 1970 (US title: The Prisoner and the Bomb)
• Jung and the Story of Our Time, 1975
• Yet Being Someone Other, 1982
• The Admiral's Baby, 1996

Movies

Movie adaptations of his books; otherwise he is not in or involved directly with these movies.

• Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) —- Based on The Seed and the Sower (1963) and The Night of the New Moon (1970), about his experience as a prisoner of war. Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence ( Senjou no Merii Kurisumasu, aka Furyo in many European editions is a 1983 film directed Starring David Bowie. David Bowie (ˈboʊiː born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947 is an English Musician, actor producer, and arranger.
• A Far Off Place (1993) —- Based on A Far-Off Place (1974) and A Story Like the Wind (1972). A Far Off Place is a Walt Disney Pictures and Amblin Entertainment film from 1993, starring Reese Witherspoon, Ethan Randall

References

• Carpenter, Frederic I. , Laurens Van Der Post. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc, 1969

External links

• Complete published works by or about LvdP
• Images of LvdP, from the National Portrait Gallery.