TO HAVE NOT, TO HOLD

This book tells the story of Jeanie, a young nurse living in South Africa during the Apartheid years. Jeanie is a hard worker and an activist, but in her private life she has to deal with the problems caused by her abusive and aggressive husband and her best friend Zogi, who is struggling with addiction.

In a country divided, in which being not only black, but also a woman, is the cause of many injustices, the reader will follow the main character in her everyday life. An interesting perspective, told with honesty, that will underline the many contradictions of those difficult years.

Monica Clarke was born in South Africa and worked as a nurse and midwife during the Apartheid years. She then qualified as a lawyer and practised criminal law (mostly political trials) in South Africa for several years.

Her involvement with the underground liberation movement, (the African National Congress), led her to flee from the security police. She was then granted political asylum in the UK in the early 1980s.

After settling in London, she worked as a commercial lawyer. When her husband had a very severe stroke she stopped working to look after him full time and when he died she took up a position as an Associate Director in the National Health Service (NHS), specialising in engagement and inclusion.

Monica works with excluded communities worldwide, telling her story in classrooms, workplaces and boardrooms. She helps institutions to include the voice of their beneficiaries in service delivery, conducting workshops and speaking publicly to support equality agendas, especially in education. In 2013 she founded I PROTECT ME, a non-profit organisation which empowers women and children in South Africa to speak out and stand up against abuse. (See www.IProtectMeSouthAfrica.org)

As a journalist with World Pulse, an international online resource for women, she blogs regularly about human rights issues.