Son Of A Preacher Man

Son of a Preacher Man is a story about a loving but fraught relationship between a father and son in apartheid South Africa.

The father was Bruce Evans, a Jewish-born, evangelical Anglican clergyman who became Bishop of Port Elizabeth. His children grew up in the 1960s and ’70s in a world awash with chapter-and-verse ‘born-again’ Christianity that included ‘talking-in-tongues’, ‘divine healings’ and exorcism.

Gavin, his middle son, who narrates the tale, eventually broke with the religious beliefs he’d inherited and threw himself into the ‘struggle’ for democracy while keeping his father at arms’ length. But they reconciled shortly before Bruce’s death from motor neuron disease in 1993.

The book delves into the psyches of both men and examines how it played out in the 33 years they had together.