Background

Dianne Hofmeyr was born in Somerset West, South Africa. She grew up between the sea and mountains on the southern tip of Africa, the youngest in a family of three girls. Her father was a draughtsman.

Education

Dianne Hofmeyr attended Cape Town Teachers Training College, majored in art, psychology, and English.

Career

Hofmeyr is the author of "Boikie You Belter Believe It," a young adult novel chosen for the prestigious M-Net Award. The novel centers on Daniel, a teenager growing up in a racially diverse and volatile section of Johannesburg. Daniel writes in his journal that he can’t deal with his everyday life, particularly his father, by whom he is embarrassed because of the older man’s tendency to preach in public. Bookbird reviewer Jay Heale explained that Hofmeyr’s young protagonist also “has to cope with a peace-crusading girl acquaintance, a demure heartthrob, and a stuttering friend.”

Hofmeyr’s "Do the Whales Still Sing?" is a picture book for young children. Jude Daly provided the illustrations for this tale told to a young boy by an old man who carves driftwood. According to the story, a sea captain who hunts whales for their blubber carves an image of each whale caught on his ship’s railing; soon there are loo many carvings to count. One night, as the whaler plays his flute, he hears the song of the whales and watches them breach in the moonlight. The music of the whales reminds hint of his mother’s lullabies and his father’s voice. Hearing the whales’ song transforms the captain, and he no longer desires to harpoon them. Instead, he adopts a new way of life in which he is at peace with nature. Although a Publishers Weekly critic felt that the story, “while moving, is sometimes contrived,” the reviewer went on to note that Do the Whales Still Sing? “is bound to fill readers with a yearning for the sea.” In a review in Children's Book Review Sendee, contributor Tracey O’Connell called the book an “extraordinary story.” “The ecological message here is lyrical,” wrote Hazel Rochman in Booklist.

"The Stone: A Persian Legend of the Magi," also illustrated by Daly, is a retelling of the story of the Magi of Saveh as it was told to Marco Polo during his thirteenth-century travels to the court of Kublai Khan. Edes Gilbert wrote in the New York Times Book Review that Hofmeyr’s words “lend themselves to reading aloud in cadences that are more like music than preaching.” In the story, astronomers see the star that portents say signals the birth of a king. They set out with gifts: Jasper bears gold, an Icing’s gift; Melchior carries myrrh for a healer, and Balthasar brings incense for a holy man. When they reach the newborn infant and present their gifts, they are given a small box. As they return to their homes, one of the astronomers opens the box to find what seems to be a common stone. He throws it in a well, whereupon it bursts into a fire symbolizing the faith they must-have in the infant’s gift to mankind.

A Kirkus reviewer maintained that "The Stone" “has broad appeal, giving a fresh new shape and texture to a familiar story.” Equally enthusiastic over Hofmeyr’s work, Booklist reviewer Helen Rosenberg called the book “an intriguing story from an ancient culture.”

"The Star-Bearer: A Creation Myth from Ancient Egypt," is a retelling of an ancient Egyptian myth. The story centers around Atum, the creator, and his children, Geb, who becomes the Earth, and Nut, who becomes the starry sky. The story is also illustrated by Jude Daly. A Horn Book reviewer complimented both the story and the illustrations: “Smaller rectangular pictures then bring forth the other gods and goddess and, in their simple elegance of form and color, deepen the mystery and beauty of this tale.” Nancy Call, in School Library Journal, wrote that “Libraries... will want to add this smoothly paced retelling to their collection.”

Achievements

• Dianne Hofmeyr's travels with notebook and camera to Egypt, Tunisia, and Senegal, through China, Vietnam, and across Siberia have led to stories that have won South Africa's M-Net Book Prize and the Sanlam Gold for Youth Literature, as well as the Young Africa Award and an IBBY. She is also the author of Fish Notes and Star Song and several picture books based on Ancient Egyptian myths.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Magic Bojabi Tree

    (Python has wrapped himself around the melon/mango/pomegra...)

    2013
  • Eye of the Sun

    (In this exciting sequel to Eye of the Moon, Tuthmosis's b...)

    2011
  • Do the Whales Still Sing?

    (An old man tells the lighthouse boy about a successful se...)

    1995
  • Oliver Strange and the Journey to the Swamps

    (Oliver Strange’s life in London is all very normal until ...)

    2013
  • Eye of the Moon

    (Dianne Hofmeyr spins a web of intrigue, mystery, and adve...)

    2011
  • The Faraway Island

    ("There once was an unhappy man who longed to be all on hi...)

    2008
  • Tiger Walk

    (One day Tom draws a tiger, inspired by his visit to the a...)

    2019
  • The Glassmaker's Daughter

    (Daniela the glassmaker's daughter is grumpy and never smi...)

    2017
  • The Star-Bearer

    (A five-thousand-year-old story. When the godchild Atum em...)

    2001
  • My Daddy Is a Silly Monkey

    (My daddy is a great big bear. He gets out of bed and grum...)

    2017
  • Zeraffa Giraffa 2015
  • The Stone 1998
  • Boikie, you better believe it 1994

Personality

Dianne Hofmeyr once told: "I’m still a traveler. In places like the Okavango Swamps, China, Egypt, South Korea, Russia, across Siberia by train, through Senegal, Tunisia, Vietnam and Zambia, I’m forever taking photographs, drawing maps, sketching, collecting scraps of paper… hoping somewhere to find the thread of a story."

Interests

• design, photography, film, theatre, travel, reading, charity

• Writers

  Isabel Allende, Margaret Atwood, Michael Cunningham, Carson McCullers, Peter Carey, Doris Lessing, Michael Ondaatjie, E. Annie Proulx

Connections

She lives in central London with her husband and their two sons.

References

• Dianne Hofmeyr on twitter
• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vol. 194
  2010