Winds of Change

The winds of change are blowing over Africa, and South Africa, the last bastion of white supremacy, refuses to give up its unjust policy of Apartheid in the midst of international pressure and internal conflict.

It is the late seventies and Father Christopher Wright one of the few ‘coloured priests’ in Cape Town meets a pregnant Joanna Poggenpoel, a simple coloured country girl working as housekeeper for Fr Patrick O’Shaunessy, a white priest, a missionary from Ireland. This sets off a wave of intricate events and relationships across the racial, religious and political divide bringing together whites, blacks, coloureds and every one in between as crimes unfold and forbidden liaisons are formed.

What unfolds is unimaginable and will shock you, but at the same time the characters in Winds of Change will make you laugh and cry.

Gerald W Searle was born in Cape Town. The third-born of ten children. He grew up under the unjust and cruel policy of Apartheid at its worst. He finished his schooling in 1953. Gerald worked as a factory hand for three years then experienced a calling to priesthood. He then completed his high school followed by seven years at a pontifical university in Rome where he graduated in philosophy and theology. He was ordained in Rome in 1962. Gerald ministered as an ordained priest in Cape Town for seven years. Fell in love with and married Lorraine in 1971. Migrated to Western Australia in 1980. He took up writing as a way to enrich his retirement in 2001. Gerald has since published a theological work, a novel, and his memoir. He lives with his wife in Wanneroo in Perth, Western Australia.