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Bree O`Mara
9781920143190
Softback: 198 x 130mm
December 2007

£12.95 Delivered

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Winner of The Citizen Book Prize in association with 30° South Publishers—South Africa’s first ever book prize to be chosen by the reading public.

In the Underberg village of Hillman, population 237 (it would have been 238 except the mayor, Dewaldt "Pompies" van Niekerk, was not at home at the time of the last census; he was apparently seeing to some rather pressing matters concerning one of the town's citizens that evening), something has disturbed the peace in the hilltop hamlet.
Situated 199½km from Durban (the extra ½km being of critical importance when you wish to distance yourself from city folk), Hillman is having an identity crisis. A debate is raging about whether or not to change the name of the town in line with current political trends. The mayor, surmising that the position of authority he has held since 1982 could be in jeopardy from one Ephraim "Oubaas" Mthethwa, decides to embrace the debate and campaigns to change Hillman’s name to 'Dingaan Berg' in order to win votes on both sides of the fence.
Mthethwa wants to change the name to Dingiswayo, stating correctly that Dingaan never actually visited Hillman at any point in history.

Sheep farmer and pillar of the community, Kobus van Vouw, wants the town name changed to Jacobusville, in honour of his forebear who brought sheep-farming to Hillman in 1900. Plus he fears that if Mthethwa gets his way the town will become known as "Dinges".

Mrs. Eleanor Lambert-Lansdowne, widow of a local sugar-cane baron, wants to keep the name of Hillman because some reminders of a kinder, gentler time must surely remain in this chaotic new world, she argues. Tienkie Groenewald, the postal clerk, doesn't really care so long as the postal codes don't change. Embroiled in a hotbed of infighting and political one-upmanship, the town becomes a dorp divided. When a rumour goes round that wealthy developers are coming to Hillman to build a Sun City-style resort on the mountain, the town is thrown into chaos. Newspaper reporters from as far as Pietermaritzburg and Estcourt descend en masse, and the townsfolk of Hillman have to choose between progress and prosperity or self-preservation.

Bree O'Mara was born in Durban on a Thursday in July, just in time for lunch. She started out life in the theatre and performed for all four performing arts councils before the diet of lettuce and watercress became too much to bear.
In 1992 she went to live in the Middle East where she worked as a steward for Bahrain’s national carrier.

After appearing in the television advert for the airline, the producer of the commercial got drunk on a flight to London and offered Bree a job as an art director in his film production company. She took this offer (written on a napkin in case he forgot the next day) and went on to become a producer of 35mm television commercials and documentaries, writing copy and scripts all over the Gulf and Middle Eastern region.

Since then Bree has lived and worked in broadcast and print media in Canada, the United States and England. In 2004 she left the UK for Tanzania, where she lived for a year with the Maasai, working for a small charity. There she lived with no electricity and no running water and this made her homesick for South Africa. She now lives with her husband in the North West Province.

Bree speaks a variety of languages, plays the harp, doesn't like artichokes, follows Formula 1, and works in conservation. Her favourite authors are Joanne Harris, PJ O'Rourke, Tobias Wolff and Stephen Fry.