The novel

Telling of the everyday life of a rural family that has moved to the city of Cape Town, as narrated by the teenage daughter Grietjie, the tale was originally written for a writing competition sponsored by the Vroue Landbouvereniging[] ("Women's Agricultural Association"), it was published in serial form in the women's magazine Sarie Marais and subsequently published in book form with the full title Die voortreflike familie Smit: 'n vertelling (Tafelberg publishers, 1962). Louw received the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns's Scheepersprys for youth literature for it in 1968.

The film (1965)

The novel was filmed and distributed by Carfo in 1965. The sources are rather contradictory regarding the film production, though they agree on the date and the cast. For example some sources (e.g. the Afrikaans Wikipedia) name Kappie Botha as the adaptor, scriptwriter and director, while the probably more authoritative IMDb entry on the film has a different set of crew members, naming Kappie Botha only as the cinematographer, and listing Euodia Kritzinger as scriptwriter, Tim Spring as director/lighting designer and David Neppe as film editor.

The cast (in credits order) as listed by IMDb [1] as: P.W. Botha, Helen van Pletzen, Jemima Wessels, Elma Marais, Ben van der Merwe, Bertha Visser, Louis van Niekerk, Francois van Wyk, Lambert Millar and Neels de Klerk.

The TV series (1983)

In 1983 it was adapted as a series for the Afrikaans service of SABC TV, directed Stephan Bouwer (1949-1999) and featuring Kosie Eloff (Oupa), Anna Cloete (Ouma), Marga van Rooy (Ma), Brümilda van Rensburg, (Grietjie), Marna Gey van Pitius (Petro) and others. There were 10 episodes, which were transmitted from 8 February 1983 onwards.