Whitethorn (novel)
Whitethorn is a novel by Australian author Bryce Courtenay. It follows a white child in South Africa and was published in 2005.
The novel follows a boy in South Africa. The boy is instantly an outsider for his English name, Fitzsaxby, and is bullied and harassed as a different side of racism shown by the Boers, who have the knowledge that twenty-six thousand women and children died at the hands of the English in the Boer Wars. The description of the early life of Tom Fitzsaxby as seen through the eyes and words of a young child are both humourous and at times sad. Courtenay captures the mind and manner of thinking of a child. The novel leaves the believable as the child grows up winning scholarships to a private school and Oxford University where he goes on to obtain a double first and excel as a lawyer.