I am greatly saddened to share news of the passing of Charles Jonathan Driver, known always as Jonty. He died in Bristol on Sunday 21 May 2023 after a short illness.
Jonty was a giant, not simply in stature. As a young man, his involvement in the student movement against apartheid – in particular his association with the African Resistance Movement and as his time as president of the National Union of South African students – resulted in a month-long detention in solitary confinement. On his release he immediately moved to England with the help of Professor Robert Birley, eventually enrolling at Trinity College, Oxford. While reading for his MA, the South African government refused to renew Jonty’s passport, and he effectively became stateless. For more than twenty years he could not return to the land of his birth.
Jonty eventually made the decision to stay in England permanently, becoming a British citizen, and building a family and professional life there. In 1976 he became a research fellow at the University of York, and for twenty-three years he was a headmaster in Hong Kong, at Berkhamsted School and, most notably, Wellington College. In sum he published ten collections of poems, (most recently Still Further: New Poems, published by uHlanga), five novels (four of which are still in print from Faber), and numerous works of non-fiction and essay.
It is difficult to summarise a life such as Jonty’s, more so immediately after his death. The Jonty I knew was a man who spoke, wrote, and thought with uncommon sensitivity and moral clarity. To my mind, he is one of the finest poets South Africa has produced.
Jonty is survived by his wife Ann, his children Dominic, Dax and Tamlyn, and his grandchildren. My thoughts are with them and his many loved ones at this time.
Thanks Jonty. Rest well, friend.
– Nick Mulgrew, Cape Town, 22 May 2023
