Teller of Many Tales: The Lives of Laurens van der Post

by J.D.F. Jones

The celebrated Laurens van der Post made a life of lies. Those who know him as the advisor of Prince Charles and Margaret Thatcher, author of twenty-three popular, award-winning books, (several of which were made into films) and a speaker for the cause of African peoples will be startled by the revelations in this fascinating biography of a consummate fabricator. Among the romantic highlights in van der Post’s version of his life were an Afrikaner childhood that featured a Bushman nursemaid, decorated military service, a brutal stretch as a POW in the Pacific, his devoted friendship with Carl Jung, and his sympathetic chronicles of the Kalahari Bushmen. Peeling away van der Post’s stories, J. D. F. Jones’s biography shows that most of his tales were tall—designed to dazzle an all-too-gullible world. In reality, van der Post had no Bushman nanny; his World War II military service, for which he abandoned his wife and children, was not particularly distinguished; and his relationship with Jung was tenuous at most. He also advised Britain’s elite, although his credentials were only a tissue of invention that he kept aloft until his death at age ninety in 1996. While disclosing van der Post’s many fictions, Jones never loses sight of his very real charisma and the widespread devotion he inspired. At once probing and unsparing, Teller of Many Tales is also a model of biographic balance and illumination. “...a fantasist, a liar, a serial adulterer... It was to this man that Lady Thatcher turned for advice... Devastating...”—Sunday Telegraph

Genres: Biography

528 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Alan Conrad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Since when did having a strong dislike for an author qualify one to write a biography of the author? How a quality publisher like Simon & Shuster got fooled this way is beyond me. Yes, Van der Post, hid a lot about his life, but that just revealed to me that he was more of a loner than I already thought. That he was such a womanizer was a bit of a shock - he covered that well - but not unwelcome. From even this book I think it's clear that the women involved were all glad to have met him. That he often exaggerated and embellished in his writing, was already clear to me from his writing. But to portray him as a fraud is to have completely misunderstood Van der Post - did he not spend 3 years in a Japanese prison camp? Was he not an expert on Africa, warning about racism and defending African people when few others were? Did he not meet Jung? Is his book 'Jung and the Story of Our time' not a major work that has yet to be fully appreciated? The impression I got from this book is that, for some reason, Jones harbored a deep resentment of Van der Post, maybe only because he knew himself to be much the lesser man. Some members of the family tried to block the book. I'm sorry they failed.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Laurens was a pathological liar!

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nobody cares about this guy anymore but this is a first-rate biography.

[Margitte · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a few of the van der Post books but had difficulty in getting into it. I just couldn't relate to it, especially when I recognized some plagiary from a book published(German researcher) in 1875(thereabouts) on the Bushmen culture. Then a few years later this book, "Storyteller: The Many Lives Of Laurens Van Der Post" was published and it came as no surprise, although still mindblowing. Jones did his research extremely well.

"After J.D.F.Jones's authorised biography, he will be remembered for one main skill: storytelling. His books and stories (of the Bushmen of the Kalahari, of his friendship with Jung, of his diplomatic importance) may be inspiring. They are also fabricated.

This spellbinding account of a famous man reveals [him] as enchanting, ambiguous, inspiring, complex, misleading, sometimes admirable, sometimes risible - and sometimes as a shockingly culpable fabulist and liar...the result - not least because Jones has organised this mass of material of material so well, and written his account so beautifully - reads like a thriller and a Gothic romance in one. Laurens van der Post told lies, and told tales, and Jones has here brilliantly told the tale of his lies - and of his achievements. It is an unputdownably good read." - A.C.Greyling, Financial Times