Toek Blignaut


Toek Blignaut was a South African writer. She wrote over 80 books and 200 short stories. She interviewed heart surgeon Christian Barnard and she made the first interview with Rain Queen Mokope Modjadji. She was an agony aunt at the Afrikaans teenage magazine Rooi Roos where she rose to be vice-editor.

Life

Blignaut was born in Bloemfontein in 1922 as Johanna Marthina Sophia Venter. Her parents owned a farm in the Free State and she attended school near the Kaffer River. She grew to a height of four foot six inches. She was engaged to be married but instead married a pen friend Jacobus Nicolaas Francois Blignaut in 1944. They were to have two daughters who in time would also become writers.
Whilst she was caring for her children she wrote in her spare time. Initially she worked as a freelance but she was offered a permanent position at Rooi Rose magazine. She was an agony aunt at this Afrikaans teenage magazine where she rose to be vice-editor. One of her tasks was to conduct an interview with the heart surgeon Christian Barnard after he made the first heart transplant.
Her most popular book was Donker op Nebo was her first which was written in Afrikaans in 1970.
She wrote over 80 books and 200 short stories. She also conducted the first interview granted with the Rain Queen Mokope Modjadji.
Blignaut died in Bloemfontein in 2007 of a heart attack.

Works include