Imaginative Trespasser

The correspondence of Bessie Head and the Cullinans traces her struggles in isolation
during exile in Botswana and her discovery of her power as a writer.
During her exile in Botswana, Bessie Head exchanged frequent letters with the South
African poet and publisher Patrick Cullinan and his wife, Wendy. This correspondence
became a record of Head’s struggle to survive her isolation at a time when she was
discovering her power as a writer. The Cullinans were among her few constant sources
of moral, and sometimes material, support, and in the warm exchange of what passed
between them, a picture emerges of the period during which so many South African
writers and activists faced the challenge of exile.
Cullinan’s commentary on Head’s writing is trenchant and engaging, and he uses
his own considerable skills as a writer to construct a narrative that is both absorbing
and illuminating. Imaginative Trespasser is a poignant account of a friendship that
grew in and through letters, survived the pressures of exile, and yet was deeply
damaged by the demons that Bessie Head carried within her during the difficult years
of her life in Botswana