Kitchen Boy by Jenny Hobbs
ISBN: 9781415200971
PUBLISHER: Umuzi, 2011
FORMAT: Paperback; 272 pages
DESCRIPTION: Luck matters. Life is chancy. Springbok legend, war hero, thriving businessman - that was JJ Kitching, known to all as Kitchen Boy. His was a life a large as a sports stadium, as thrilling as baling out of a burning war plane. Now he lies dead in his coffin in a Durban cathedral and his life is relived as funeral goers remember a glowing Natal childhood, the thunder of the rugby field, the joys and sorrows of family. But at the core of the man remained, to the end, the memory of WWII and how it could reduce even the bravest of men. The funeral draws to a close, but in the heart of one of his pall-bearers, Kitchen Boy's shameful secret lives on.