Walk

Overview

The true and epic story of a boy’s survival in the face of impossible odds, Walk tells of a deadly scramble down the wild coastline of what is present-day South Africa. This length of coastline is a hike that every South African should have the privilege of taking. But for the survivors of the wreck of the Grosvenor, as they clambered onto the rocks on August 5, 1782, they might as well have crash-landed on Mars. The shipwrecked decided to walk to the Cape of Good Hope, though their ordeal starting at Lambasi in northern Pondoland ended in the dune deserts not far from what is now known as Port Elizabeth—for those few who survived it. William Hubberly, a young man and servant to the Grosvenor’s second mate William Shaw, was one of them. Walk takes the reader step by step, day by day on Hubberly’s horrific trek. While indisputably fiction, this work sails a good deal closer to the historical truth and is a haunting parable on the meeting of Europe and Africa.

Author Biography

James Whyle is a playwright, a director, and the cofounder of the Take Away Shakespeare Company. His plays were performed at the Hilton Festival, the Civic Theatre in Johannesburg, and the National Arts Festival. He is also the author of The Book of War, which was short-listed for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize for 2012, and two radio plays for the BBC: Dancing with the Dead and A Man Called Rejoice. He is the recipient of the Pen/Studzinski Short Story Award for "The Story."