Judith Todd shares her bookshelf

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It’s hard to remember sometimes, but politicians and prominent people are human too. For me, I am always curious to know what they read, and if lucky to get an explanation, why they read what they read.

It’s hard to remember sometimes, but politicians and prominent people are human too. For me, I am always curious to know what they read, and if lucky to get an explanation, why they read what they read. I hope that by reading about what they read, we may also learn about books and authors we may not have experienced before.

Literary Forum by Bookworm

Judith Todd was generous to share what she reads. She is daughter of Garfield Todd — a former Rhodesian Prime Minister in the 1950s — and herself a political activist. In 2003 she was disenfranchised and stripped of her Zimbabwean citizenship by the Robert Mugabe regime. She is the author of Rhodesia: An Act of Treason, the story of white Rhodesia’s unilateral declaration of independence from Britain in 1965, and The Right To Say No, about black Rhodesia’s rejection of an attempted settlement between the Rhodesian and British governments. Both books were banned in Rhodesia and republished in Zimbabwe. Her book, Through the Darkness: A Life in Zimbabwe received special commendation from the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa in 2008. Below is an interview I [BW] had with Judith Todd (JT).

Judith Todd

BW: What books are currently on your night stand? JT: There are several books on my bed side including: A Dream Fulfilled: Memoirs of an African Diplomat by Thandi Lujabe-Rankoe; Sleep In Peace Tonight by James MacManus; The Many Houses Of Exile by Richard Jurgens and The Bible.

BW: Who is your favourite writer of all time? JT: William Faulkner.

BW: What genres do you especially enjoy reading? And which do you avoid? JT: I enjoy reading crime fiction and avoid Mills & Boon.

BW: What are your favourite books about Zimbabwe, or by Zimbabwean writers? JT: I have a few — An Ill-Fated People: Zimbabwe Before And After Rhodes by Lawrence Vambe; The Quartet Children Of Violence by Doris Lessing and Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller.

BW: Who’s your favourite fictional hero or heroine? Your favourite anti-hero or villain? JT: My favourite fictional hero is Inspector Maigret in the novels by Georges Simenon; and anti-heroes and heroines the “guys” and “dolls” in the short stories of Damon Runyon.

BW: What kind of reader were you as a child? Your favourite books and authors? JT: Omniverous. I read almost anything by anyone starting with Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie and moving on to James Baldwin, Albert Camus, Ian Fleming, Ernest Hemingway etc.

BW: If you had to name one book that made who you are today, what would it be? JT: The Roots of Heaven by Romain Gary.

BW: If you could meet any writer, dead or live, who would it be? What would you want to know? JT: Eddison Zvobgo. Where are your memoirs?

BW: If someone could write your life story, who would that be? JT: Percy Zvomuya.

BW: How often do you read your own work, or when you are done writing it, you and the book lead separate lives? JT: Me and my three books basically live separate lives except for reference now and again.

BW: If you had the opportunity, what book would you recommend the president to read? JT: The New Testament.

BW: Disappointing, overrated, just not good: what book did you feel you were supposed to like, and didn’t? What was the book you put down without finishing? JT: If I find a book repellent for any reason — like being boring or gruesome — I don’t waste time and I rapidly jettison it, the latest example being Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith.

BW: Do you like to re-read? What books do you find yourself returning to again and again? JT: Yes. I re-read books like Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee; and Wide Realms of Poetry.

BW: What books are you embarrassed to not have read yet? JT: The complete works of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.

BW: What do you plan to read next? JT: The Rebel In Me: A Zanla Guerrilla Commander in the Rhodesian Bush War 1975-1980 by Agrippah Mutambara.

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