Dalene Matthee was a South African author who wrote mainly in Afrikaans

Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

, although her books were translated into fourteen other languages, including English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

, Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

 and Icelandic

Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...

.

A descendant of Sir Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

, she was born Dalene Scott in Riversdale

Riversdale, Western Cape

Riversdale is a town located on the N2 highway between Cape Town and George on the Agulhas Coastal Plain of the southern Western Cape province of South Africa. It is an agricultural service orientated town, being a hub for shopping and other services for surrounding farming communities, smaller...

 in the then Cape Province

Cape Province

The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...

. After matriculating from the local high school in 1957, she studied music at a conservatorium in Oudtshoorn as well as at the Holy Cross Covent in Graaff-Reinet.

Her first book was a children's novel, Die twaalfuurstokkie (The twelve-o'-clock stick) (1970). In 1982 a collection of short stories called Die Judasbok (The Judas Goat) was also published.

Before gaining fame and wide acclaim for her first "forest novel", she also wrote stories for magazines as well as two popular novels - ’n Huis vir Nadia (A House for Nadia) (1982) and Petronella van Aarde, burgemeester (Petronella van Aarde, Mayor) (1983).

Kringe in ’n bos (Circles in a forest) (1984), a novel about the extermination of the elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals in two extant genera of the family Elephantidae: Elephas and Loxodonta, with the third genus Mammuthus extinct...

s and the exploitation of the woodcutters of the Knysna

Knysna

Knysna is a town with 76,431 inhabitants in the Western Cape Province of South Africa and is part of the Garden Route. It lies 34 degrees south of the equator, and is 72 kilometres east from the town of George on the N2 highway, and 25 kilometres west of Plettenberg Bay on the same road.-History:A...

 forest, was an international success. Two other highly successful "forest novels" followed: Fiela se Kind (Fiela's Child) in 1985 and Moerbeibos (The Mulberry Forest) in 1987.

Brug van die esels (Bridge of the mules) was published in 1993, followed by Susters van Eva (Sisters of Eve) in 1995, Pieternella van die Kaap (Pieternella from the Cape) in 2000 and the fourth "forest novel" Toorbos (Dream Forest) (2003).

Fiela's Child and Circles in a forest were filmed. She also won numerous literary prizes for her works.

After a short sickbed caused by heart failure, she died in Mossel Bay

Mossel Bay

Mossel Bay is a harbour town of about 130,000 people on the Southern Cape of South Africa. It is an important tourism and farming region of the Western Cape Province...

, South Africa. She was survived by her three daughters; her husband, Larius, died in 2003.

The forest novels

• Kringe in 'n bos (Circles in a forest) (1984)
• Fiela se Kind (Fiela's Child) (1985)
• Moerbeibos (The Mulberry Forest) (1987)
• Toorbos (Dream Forest) (2003)

Other published works

• Die twaalfuurstokkie (The twelve-o'-clock stick) (1970)
• ’n Huis vir Nadia (A House for Nadia) (1982)
• Petronella van Aarde, burgemeester (Petronella van Aarde,Mayor) (1983)
• Brug van die esels (The Day The Swallows Spoke) (1992)
• Susters van Eva (Sisters of Eve) (1995)
• Pieternella van die Kaap (Pieternella from the Cape) (2000)
• Die Uitgespoeldes (Driftwood) (2005)