About Blady: A Pattern Out of Time

by Laurens van der Post

An autobiographical memoir from Laurens Van Der Post, which touches on many of the deepest human issues. This book tells the story of a horse rescued from labour to become a champion showjumper, mirroring an incident in Sir Laurence's own childhood. From it he knits together reflections on dreams, mythology, the primoridal links between humans and horses, the innate role of the feminine, and the creative potential of suffering. The result is a book which confronts the lack of human spirituality in our time and conveys a message of hard-won but vibrant optimism. The author also wrote "Yet Being Someone Other", "Lost World of the Kalahari", "Venture to the Interior", "Far-Off Place" and "Story Like the Wind".

Genres: South Africa, Africa

272 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.

[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.