Beverley Roos-Muller

Beverley Roos-Muller (1949-) is an academic, author and newspaper and radio journalist.

Biography

Beverley Lewis was born on 19 July, 1949, in Cape Town, of Irish parentage and had her early schooling at Rustenburg Primary School, Rondebosch and Huguenote Hoër Skool, Wellington, before matriculating in Natal at Northlands, 1966.

She then went to the University of Cape Town (UCT) to complete a B.A. (with Distinction), an M.A., and a Ph.D. in Humanities.

She became a reporter for The Cape Argus (January 1967-1974), becoming the first woman newspaper reporter in South Africa to receive parity pay (1972), when she was appointed Head of Features in 1972, the first woman to hold that post. For two years (1974-5) she worked as a free-lance journalist in London.

She then became a University of Cape Town lecturer, teaching in the departments of cultural history, the study of Religions, and Political Studies until 1987. Also was a guest lecturer in Archaeology on occasion.

In 1987 she left her academic career at UCT to participate in the politics of the 1980s on a full time basis, standing for the Progressive Federal Party (PFP)[1] in Durbanville in 1987 during that year's Election, and became involved in a range of progressive activities, including becoming a founding member of the Cape Town branch of the Five Freedoms Forum[2], became the official spokesperson for the FFF campaign Open City, and was invited by Cowley House during Robben Island’s final years as a political prison, to become a prison visitor for those whose families lived too far away to make the long journey. She has written about this time, and spoken at various events including a special Commemoration on the Island with former political prisoner Ahmed Kathrada.

In 1970 she married Dr Peter Roos, and has a daughter, Nandi Roos, and grandson, Kieran Roos-Munroe.

In 1997 she met her second husband, Ampie Muller, while they were both working for Fine Music Radio. They were marred for 22 years, till his passing in 2019.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Starting as a journalist for the The Argus, she would in the course of her career interview and write on international authors and stars of stage and screen, as well as writing on political, social and cultural matters for most other mainstream newspapers in South Africa. She is still a featured Opinionista in the Daily Maverick and her work has been syndicated in overseas news publications.

With its founding, she became a radio presenter on Fine Music Radio (FMR101.3), presenting a weekly Arts Diary programme for ten years, as well as various classical music programmes. She covered the full National Arts Festival in Grahamstown live on air for four years (1998-2001). She continues to write regular features, broadcasts and podcasts.

Among the many people she interviewed over the years, have been Nobel Prize winners such as Nadine Gordimer, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Wole Soyinka, to South African household names such as authors and playwrights André P. Brink (several times), Damon Galgut, Christopher Hope, Justin Cartwright, Etienne van Heerden, Antjie Krog, Zakes Mda, Chris van Wyk, Ivan Vladislavic, to name just some.

She has also published interviews with many established international writers, including Thomas Kenneally (Schindler’s List), John Boyne (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas), Lionel Shriver (We Need to Talk about Kevin), Alexandra Fuller (Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight). Lyall Watson (SuperNature, The Whole Hog, etc) and Tan Twan Eng (The Gift of Rain, The Garden of Evening Mists, The House of Doors).

Since 2020 she has published three non-fiction books and has started a novel. The published works are:

Vuur in sy Vingers ("Fire in his fingers", a festchrift for the revered Afrikaans poet, playwright and intellectual N.P. van Wyk Louw, compiled by Ampie Muller and Beverley Roos-Muller, published by Hemel en See Boeke, 2020);

Bullet in the Heart: Four brothers ride to war 1899-1902 (the tale of the Boer War, based on the diaries of three Muller brothers, including her late husband’s grandfather, Michael Muller, published by Jonathan Ball Publishers in 2023, reprinted within six weeks);

Hunting the Seven: How the Assassinations of the Gugulethu Seven were Exposed (based on her own close connection to the story events of 1986, published by Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2024).