A Paarlite is making literary waves at the age of 77 with her debut novel which was published earlier this year.
Angela Miller-Rothbart was born and raised in Paarl where she attended La Rochelle Girls’ High school.
While for many retirement is a time that they dread, Angela rather decided to grab this opportunity and follow her passion for writing for which she never had time during her working years.
She joined a writing group with the idea of writing a blog. In this time she joined the Cape Town Jewish Seniors Association where she met an elderly Holocaust survivor and they became firm friends.
And so the stories started to flow between the two with Angela’s friend opening up to her about her years before, during and after the Holocaust.
This story captured Angela’s imagination and remained in her thoughts constantly.
“Meeting Henia Bryer was the catalyst for my story,” said Angela. “Growing up in Paarl in the dark days of apartheid I was deeply affected by what I perceived as intolerance and injustice.
“When I met Henia her stories of the holocaust were so evocative it felt as though the wheel had come full circle.”
And so Angela started to write what she first thought would only be a short story, but eventually a full-length novel was born.
Angela says it is not only her friend’s story, but a tapestry of story’s and characters created because of this.
The Lightness of Air took three years to write, and after much consultation with writers and friends, publishing was the next goal – a daunting task for any writer, but for someone in their 70s, perhaps even more terrifying.
The result is evocative and authentic – a novel that will grasp you and not let you go until the last page as you journey with a Bergen-Belsen survivor. The writing will sweep you along in the waves of loss, survival and happiness – a reminder that happiness is of one’s own making.
Angela still fondly remembers her growing-up years in her beloved Paarl.
Her parents are Solly and Blanche Miller and her father was a well-known attorney in Paarl. Angela remembers well as a child going to the Protea bioscope on Saturday afternoons where 8p bought a ticket and a tickey a delicious strawberry ice-cream from Mr Vlok’s café and milkbar.
Also the first real restaurant and steakhouse in Paarl, San Remo. Angela says she remembers well how on Friday afternoons she and her friends in their tomtoms (moccasins), wide skirts and stiff petticoats sashaying down Lady Grey Street to enjoy Doc Orange at San Remo. And the Commercial Hotel which was owned by friends of her parents, the Myers family, where the manager, Mr McCarthy, allowed her and her friends to watch “lang-arm dancing” on Saturday nights.
The Paarl Library was then run by Miss Dick and Miss Oelitz.
“You could get lost in shelves of Secret Seven and Nancy Drew books. I am sure that’s where my love of writing was nurtured. School friends were made and bonds cemented.”
After school Angela went to Drama School, but on her fathers insistence ended up becoming a legal shorthand typist.
As a young married woman Angela discovered another talent, that of business and she became an entrepreneur and business woman running seven stores and a factory manufacturing leather products – from keyrings to jackets.
Angela will be discussing her book at the monthly woman’s book club meeting at Oude Renbaan restaurant in Paarl on 14 September at 10:00. Booking is essential. Email emily@newlymedia.co.za before 11 September.
