Author Description

This is the story of the great Boer trek in the 1830's, when ten thousand Boers, their families, flocks and households left their fertile farms in the Cape Colony and set off into the vast, unknown emptiness of Africa. Driven by their hatred for the British who now ruled the Cape, as well as the old, old quest for a promised land and new beginnings, they faced flood, fire, ambush and treachery in their search for their unknown destination. Many died by the way but none of them turned back. The Fiercest Heart is the story of some of these brave Oom Willem, their strange, fierce leader; Tante Maria his enormous, kindly sister-in-law; and above all Cina, the tawny-haired, bewitching tomboy who in the course of the trek learns what it is to be a woman.