About Blady: A Pattern Out of Time

by Laurens van der Post

Sir Laurens, whose life has encompassed African expeditions and years as a Japanese POW, recalls events-some joyful, some tragic-and in so doing provides the framework for an exploration into the human spirit.

Genres: South Africa, Africa

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Sir Laurens Jan van der Post was a 20th Century South African Afrikaner author of many books, farmer, war hero, political adviser to British heads of government, close friend of Prince Charles, godfather of Prince William, educator, journalist, humanitarian, philosopher, explorer, and conservationist.

Reviews

[Mary Monro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always enjoy LVDP's writing but this is my least favourite of the books I have read. The only redeeming feature for me was the connection he makes between the man-horse relationship and Chiron, the centaur and original healer, teacher of Asclepius. I treat horses osteopathically and always feel that they treat me as much as I treat them. Their principal characteristic seems to be compassion, which is the soul of healing. It was interesting to learn the roots of this intuition.

[Connor FitzGerald · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve always love reading van der Post and have read most of his other works. This was…well…only okay. The story itself was interesting but to be honest I often got lost in pages and pages of prose. As I say, I’m familiar with his writing style and have loved all of his other works but this one almost felt like he was trying to hard to make some type of profound point?!? His concepts of our lost innocence and the importance of retaining innocence and the whole concept of the immeasurable value to the human spirit of acknowledging the deep sensitivity of natural Africa and the Bushmen are all deeply profound and hugely important additions to humanity’s collective knowledge. So with that in mind I approached this book with excitement but ultimately I felt it didn’t quite reach his usual very high standard.

[Penelope Day · Rating 1 out of 5]

He wrote wonderfully at times but the verbose pontificating in between did my head in

[Julian Friend · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sublime memoir. It begins slowly, like a meditation. Ver Der Post always includes Africa.....even when the book is a remembrance of a couple of friends of his who enter an unlikely former plow-horse, Blady, into a show jumping competition in Spain.