Spud Journal

Spud

by John van de Ruit

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

John Howard van de Ruit is a South African novelist, actor, playwright and producer. He has been a professional actor, playwright and producer since 1998. He was born in Durban and educated at Michaelhouse, where he stayed in Founders House and from where he matriculated in 1993. He then went on to complete a Masters degree in Drama and Performance at the then University of Natal.

He is best known for his collaboration with Ben Voss on the satirical sketch show Green Mamba which has toured extensively throughout Southern Africa since 2002. His first novel was published in 2005 by Penguin, entitled Spud. The book was a runaway success in South Africa. It won the 2006 Bookseller's Choice Award. The sequel Spud- The Madness Continues... was released in mid 2007. Ruit has also sold the film rights to the book, and shooting will begin in 2008.

Reviews

[Thuto · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book i read was SPUD EXIT ‘’PURSUED BY A BEAR’’
This is the third book written by John Van de RUIT. This book is about a boy named John Milton nicknamed spud.
The first book the author wrote about John Milton is about him (John) starting a new life at boarding school: Michael house.
John was awarded a scholarship to study at Michael house. He (John) meets new people and makes new friends. The new boys including John start a new group and named it Crazy eight.
During the Easter holidays, he met a beautiful girl called Mermaid. They fell in love with each other (Mermaid and John). Although Mermaid lived in the same area as Spud, they went to different schools. This means he could only see her during the holidays and long weekends.
When the schools reopen, Spud became very close friends with a boy named Henry Barker also known as Gecko. These two boys developed a strong bond with each other.
The school hosted an event in the school hall on Saturday, which girls from other schools were invited. When john arrived at the event Christina kissed him.
Right after the event, John returned to his room and told Gecko what happened at the event. When Gecko saw Christina, he fell in love with her because she was beautiful according to him.
During the holiday, Gecko went to Mozambique with Christina. While he was in Mozambique, he got bitten by a infectious mosquito and contracted Malaria. Gecko didn’t know he had Malaria.
He returned to school from Mozambique. He gave Spud a nice gift from Mozambique. He told Spud that he had great time with his girl friend (Christina).
While he was bragging about him dating Christina, he found out that Christina had kissed half of the cricket team.
While they were all sleeping they heard Gecko making funny noises. The boys went to check what was happening to Gecko, when they looked at him there was blood coming out of his ear and he was shaking badly.
They carried him up to the Sanatorium, where they found out that he had contracted Malaria. He was taken to hospital because they couldn’t help him at the Sanatorium.
John went to visit Gecko in hospital and they spoke about what happened. John sang amazing grace hymn to Gecko.
The next day John was called by a prefect and the prefect told him what happened to Gecko. Gecko passed away

[Stefan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a real work of art....it was very clear that mr van de Ruit was writing from experiance of the boarding school enbviroment and not just making it up as he goes....in the words of "The Guv" ..he has released a monster..

[Carole-anne Kinvig-jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely witty and having a good poke at "the System" in South Africa