author
Johanna Brandt
1876–1964
Best known for her vivid account of life during the Boer War, this South African writer lived a life as dramatic as the books she produced. Her work ranges from wartime memoir to religious and health writing, making her a strikingly unusual literary figure.
1 Audiobook
The Petticoat Commando: Boer Women in Secret Service
by Johanna Brandt
About the author
Born Johanna van Warmelo in Heidelberg in 1876, she became known in South Africa as a writer, nationalist activist, and Boer War spy. She later married the minister Louis Ernst Brandt and wrote under the name Johanna Brandt.
She is especially remembered for The Petticoat Commando, a memoir drawn from her experiences during the South African War. That firsthand, intensely personal book helped preserve a woman's view of the conflict and remains the work most likely to interest readers coming to her today.
Brandt's life and writing also moved in more controversial directions. Alongside her memoir and other books, she published religious and health-related works, and later became associated with the "grape cure," a treatment she promoted for serious illness. She died in 1964 in Cape Town.