Amabookabooka, the literary podcast produced by Jonathan Ancer and Dan Dewes, travels into the heart of the lockdown to bring you quick and quirky interviews with South Africa’s finest authors via Zoom.

Brent Meersman’s compelling memoir, A Childhood Made Up, sees the author hurtle down memory lane to his childhood in Cape Town, where he grew up in a family where storms were constantly ranging.

His father had an alcohol addiction and battled with depression. His mother suffered from schizophrenia.

His mother, Shirley Meersman aka Shirley Morris, aka Sirrom aka Churley aka Sherli, leaps out of the book’s pages.

She is an absentminded artist who is contemptuous of South Africans who think Picasso is a type of cheese.

A Childhood Made Up is a poignant and powerful memoir skilfully told with raw and gritty honesty, but Meersman also has a light touch and there are times were you will laugh out loud. It’s a tale of pain and sorrow but it’s also a tale of recovery and redemption.

Listen to the podcast:

Categories Non-fiction South Africa

Tags A Childhood Made Up Amabookabooka Brent Meersman