Lesley Beake (born 1949) is a Scottish-born South African children's author.
Life About Lesley Beake Lesley Beake was born in Scotland and went to school in Edinburgh She lives in South Africa, where she has worked as a teacher. Her children's novels, "which address the plight of children of certain tribes in southern Africa, attract an adult audience."
Early life and education Lesley Beake was born in Scotland in 1949 and later moved to Southern Africa, where she spent much of her childhood in countries including Zambia and South Africa.
She studied education and worked as a teacher before becoming a full-time writer.
Career Beake began publishing fiction in the 1980s and became recognized for writing stories centered on children and adolescents navigating social and cultural change in Southern Africa.
Her novel Song of Be received international attention and won several literary awards for its portrayal of a San girl living in the Kalahari Desert. Works Detained at Her Majesty's pleasure: the journal of Peter David Hadden, 1986 The Strollers, 1987. Winner of the Percy FitzPatrick Award, 1986-1988, Winner of the Young African Award, 1987-1988 A Cageful of Butterflies, 1989. Winner of the Percy FitzPatrick Award, 1988-9. Winner of the M-Net Book Prize, 1991. Strollers 1987 Rainbow, 1989 Traveller, 1989 Merino, 1989 Serena's Story, 1990 Tjojo and the wild horses, 1990 Song of Be, 1991 Bau and the baobab tree, 1992 Mandi's wheels, 1992 The Race, 1992 Café Thunderball, 1993 One dark, dark night, 1993 Jakey, 1997 An Introduction to Africa, 2000 Home Now, 2006 Remembering Green, 2009
References
Yearwood, Emerging into Independence:The Self and the Culture in Lesley Beake's Song of Be, The Alan Review 24:3 (Spring 1997)