Sally Ronchetti
'...like faded flowers thrown away.'
A quote about the suffering of the children taken from Emily Hobhouse's report on her visit to the Refugee camps in South Africa. 1901
When the idea first came to me in 2010, after reading local author Frank Beer’s book *Angel of Love*, I had no idea it would become a lifelong obsession. I knew nothing about the Boer War, my South African Boer ancestry, or even the history of South Africa. Considering that my mother was South African, with both Boer and English heritage, this showed a remarkable lack of curiosity on my part.
Since beginning this journey, I’ve made wonderful friends, including Emily’s great-niece, Jennifer Hobhouse Balme, and I’ve researched my ancestry in depth, uncovering surprising stories and connections.
I am writing an imagined account of Emily’s life and how it shaped my own family, who were held in the British concentration camps of the Boer War. What drove Emily to such extraordinary humanitarian and charitable work? What was her family like? What really happened in America? The known facts provide a strong foundation for a powerful story, but they need to be brought to life with a little literary imagination.
Back in 2010, I knew nothing about the craft of writing a compelling story. So I enrolled in creative writing courses with Faber & Faber in London and read many of the books recommended to me on the subject.
Now, in 2026, I’ve written 72,000 words and I’m not even halfway finished. I’ve created this website in preparation for the completed work.
This is a novel I have been researching for a long time I hope to complete it by March 2027
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Synopsis
Two women, bound by a shared spirit but separated by circumstance, are thrust into a singular horrific experience. We follow Emily Hobhouse, the late rector’s daughter from Cornwall, as she returns to London heartbroken after a catastrophic year in America. Approaching forty, without a home or formal education, she finds she has nothing left to lose. Driven by resolve, she takes up the cause of innocent women and children suffering in a war waged by her own nation. Despite being mocked and belittled, she fights tirelessly to improve the dire conditions within British concentration camps in South Africa.
Meanwhile, in South Africa, Alice Van Zyl is forced into the Klerksdorp refugee camp. With her father, brother, and husband missing, her farm has been razed and her livestock seized under Kitchener’s scorched-earth policy. She survives day-to-day in a mud-soaked camp, enduring scorching days and freezing nights while sharing a cramped bell tent. As rations dwindle and disease spreads, Alice’s desperate struggle for her children’s survival forces her to make choices she once thought unimaginable.
Witnessing this deprivation firsthand, Emily must summon incredible internal courage. Challenged at every turn by a jingoistic public at home, she risks her reputation and safety to expose the reality of the camps. Through sheer determination, her efforts begin to shift the British public’s perception of the conflict. While men wage war over gold and diamonds, one woman fights to stay alive while another fights for her right to live. Lord Kitchener did not call Emily Hobhouse ‘that bloody woman’ without reason.
The war is over. Alice is released into a charred wilderness with nothing but a single tent and one month’s rations. What comes next? How will she navigate an inhospitable wasteland? For Emily, the work of restoration is only just beginning.
This is their story.