South African author Anthony Fleischer has written several novels that have received widespread critical acclaim. His work is quintessentially African, and written with deep insight and impeccable craftsmanship.

EB: Where did you come from? Where did you grow up?

AF: Born in South Africa, grew up here.

EB: What drew you to writing and when did you begin writing?

AF: English always appealed, even essays at school. My first published work while a student at Wits was entitled Bambata and His Bones thanks to Prof M D W Jeffries, renowned anthropologist who recommended it. My first novel in hardback was The Skin is Deep, published by Secker & Warburg in London in 1958. It was banned in SA. I joined PEN, resisted censorship.

EB: What did you read when you were a child and how did it influence you, if at all?

AF: There were always books at home and my parents, Spencer and Di Fleischer, always encouraged reading. Miss Dunn at the Ridge used to read Jules Verne to fascinated boarders, and Douglas Pennington at Michaelhouse had a great feel for English literature. I think early reading does influence one's writing - even Shakespeare, although lesser writers are reticent to claim this. If you were influenced by Shakespeare why aren't you a better writer?

EB: When and how did you first come to be published? What was the book?

AF: I found a literary agent in London, Hughes Massie. The book was The Skin is Deep. David Farrar of Secker liked the book. He also had a great feel for English literature and I was inordinately pleased when the book was positively reviewed in TLS and elsewhere in London.

EB: Who or what influences your writing the most?

AF: The African scene, African people and language, fishermen and many other authors. Some Americans, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Roth, Updike, Miller, some Englishmen: Huxley, John Stuart Mill, Betjeman, some Africans: Paton, Chinua Achebe. Also, family and friends and career: writing often reflects the nature of one's life and experiences.

EB: What is your vision? What do you hope to give readers through your work?

AF: A hope for progress and individual dignity in Africa. My work seems to deal with individuals struggling to succeed in a harsh world. Despite the pervasive power of tribes and groups and politicians, the individual and his mind are sacrosanct. May Africa in all its diversity join the world, retain its uniqueness and honour the new global freedoms by building strong open societies - free expression, free association.

EB: What are you working on?

AF: A novel with the working title Zulu Poet which is set in the bowl of Southern Africa 'shaped like the inverted shell of a turtle'. My poet lives at Black Rock where turtles still nest on the beach. His name is Benedict Vilakazi and I quote some of the verse of the real Benedict Wallet Vilakazi who was my lecturer at Wits. He died too young, I was a student pall bearer at his funeral.

EB: Who do you read? What are you reading now?

AF: Modern novelist mainly but recently Seamus Heaney's version of the epic Beowulf, Tuesdays with Morrie, A Man in Full (not as good as Bonfire of the Vanities). How Proust Can Change Your Life by Alain Botton and right now A History of God by Karen Armstrong.

EB: What movies/music do you enjoy?

AF: Fairly catholic tastes. I still hope for a local film industry to grow, maybe based in Cape Town and still believe we could compete with the Aussies. We do have the stories. And we have the African music, the harmony of voices and the globally unknown sounds of African instruments - timbila, mbira, hippo drums.