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Book review: Emily Hobhouse: Beloved Traitor by Elsabe Britz

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Emily Hobhouse: Beloved Traitor by Elsabe Britz (first published in 2016 by Tafelberg publishers)

You will need good eyesight and persistence to read this book from start to finish.  This is because the print is very small and (what I can only describe as) bad planning in the lay-out.  

However, I found it well worth the effort.  This is the story of an amazing British humanitarian, pacifist and suffragette.  

She devoted her entire life, until her very last breath, fighting for suffering mothers and children (both in the second Boer War and in WW1) and still found time to fight for the emancipation of women.

 She also tried her best to negotiate peace during WW1.  Sadly, most of her efforts made her very unpopular in her own country.  

Most of her friends and the leaders of her own country turned their backs on her, which caused her great distress during her declining years.   

In South Africa however, where she is regarded as a hero, she got the recognition she deserved and was given the equivalent of a State funeral when she died at the age of 66.

Her ashes were sent from London to South Africa and are interred at the National Women’s Monument in Bloemfontein.  
This inspirational story will stay with me for a long time.

I think Elsabe Britz did a wonderful job with the content of the book.  Just a pity that it was printed in such an unconventional and impractical way so as to make reading difficult.

Purchase a copy of the book from Takealot.com.


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