DEON MEYER

Having penned eight thrillers, seven of which have been translated into up to 25 languages, top South African crime novelist Deon Meyer is attracting local and international attention, rave reviews with comparisons to John le Carre, and a growing string of awards including the prestigious Barry Prize for Best Thriller of 2011 in the US.

Born in Paarl in the Western Cape, Meyer (now 53) grew up in the Klerksdorp in the gold mining region of Northwest Province. The middle child, growing up with two brothers, Meyer dreamed of being a cowboy, a private eye, a detective, a fire fighter, and a heroic soldier. It was the example of his parents that encouraged Meyer to consider writing as a career – and combine several of these dreams into a stellar literary career.

“My mother and paternal grandmother were always reading when they had a spare moment. My late father loved books equally, but as the breadwinner, did not have the time to indulge. He did, however, always make time to take his three young sons to the town library, sometimes three times a week,” said Meyer.

Meyer wrote his first attempt at a novel at the age of 14 and reportedly blackmailed his brothers into reading it. Although Meyer can’t remember the title, it’s housed in the literary museum in Bloemfontein, and Meyer jokingly says he took his siblings advice and didn’t write fiction again until he was in his 30s.

After matriculating from Schoonspruit High School in Klerksdorp, Meyer went on complete a Bachelor of Arts at Potchefstroom University with majors in English and History.  

A Mozart and rock ‘n roll fan, Meyer started his career as a journalist for Die Volksblad, a daily newspaper based in Bloemfontein. His career includes public relations at the University of the Free State, as well as advertising copy writing and internal communications for Sanlam.

Meyer also completed his honours in history and masters in creative writing and went on to combine his love of motorcycles and writing as manager of special projects at BMW, before concentrating on novel writing as a full time career.

Writing in Afrikaans, Meyer’s first novel, Wie met vuur speel, was published in 1994 and is the only one of his works not to be translated (because it wasn’t good enough for an international audience according to Meyer). Since then Meyer has written seven more novels and two books of short stories, with a new thriller, Sewe Dae or Seven Days, due to be released in November.

A prolific writer, Meyer produced a book every 18 months for the first few years, but since writing full-time from 1998 he’s averaged one book a year – “including time for research, weighing up story options and worrying that it will work”.

Meyer lives in Melkbosstrand on the West Coast with his wife Anita and four children: Lida, Liam, Johan and Konstanz. He works an average of 12 hours a day, but “only six to eight of creative writing. Admin, meetings, signings take up the rest,” said a quick-humoured Meyer.

Meyer spends considerable time studying life in South Africa, setting scenes, creating believable characters, driving masterful plots and passing social comment on our life and times – and this professionalism has earned him growing popularity as a crime thriller writer list of awards and accolades. 

Devil’s Peak won the Martin Beck award from the Swedish Academy of Crime Writers and the French translation won the Readers’ Award from CritiquesLibres.com for Best Crime Novel or Thriller in 2010 and Thirteen Hours won the prestigious American Barry Prize for Best Thriller of 2011 was well as the Boeke Prize Fanatics Choice Award.

His latest book, Trackers, was the best selling novel in South Africa for eight weeks running and reviewers say Meyer has “moved into John le Carre’s class” and that the book, which has recently been released in the UK, US and Canada, is “mesmerising”. However, when asked which book he thought was his best, Meyer answered that none of his novels are perfect.

Extremely humble, Meyer attributes a lot of his success to the “incredible people who have made it all possible: my wife Anita, my agent Isobel Dixon, every publisher who have risked the substantial investment of publishing me…”

“As wonderful as it is to receive recognition, it has never been a challenge or a motivator. But every book is a unique and substantial challenge.” Perhaps the key to Meyer’s success is the fact that he enjoys what he does and believes that writing should be fun.