Pine Park’s bestselling author inspires

PINE PARK – If you keen on adventure, riddled with twists and you find the best way to achieve this is through a book, then the works of local writer, Evadeen Brickwood will keep you on an imaginative crusade with every page turn.

Brickwood, who is originally from Germany, has lived in South Africa for more than 30 years and sees no better country to call home. She has forged a name for herself in the literary world both locally and internationally. Her latest book, A Half Moon Adventure is loosely based on her time in Germany and Pakistan and was released in September this year.

“It is based on my own teenage years in Germany and my travels to Pakistan,” she said.

“I was very rebellious because I grew up in a very conservative area and I wasn’t supposed to be different even though I was.” Her deep desire to see the world and be creative spurred her toward her adventures around the globe. In her book, the main character is hypnotised by a doctor as a way to bring her back in line, something Brickwood never experienced but for the most part, the book is about her actual experiences in Pakistan. This was a bittersweet time in her life as she was faced with some unwanted attention from men.

It will be a year since Brickwood’s husband passed away. “He was suffering from a stomach ulcer that he never mentioned to me and one day he just started coughing blood and while on the operating table they found he had inhaled stomach fluids and he died.”

Brickwood said her two daughters were still angry at their dad for his silence as they believed things could have turned out differently had he just spoken of his ailment.

Brickwood is currently on medication to restore the serotonin levels in her brain which lowered after the loss of her husband and pressures that come from her work. Through it all though, she has managed to overcome her personal strife through the love of her family and working on her books. She has written all her books in both German and English but she is now considering just writing in English from here on in. Her best seller in South Africa so far has been The Rhino Whisperer.

To aspirant writers out there, Brickwood advised that they should never stop writing.