1. So Long Europe, Hello South Africa

Tall Tales and Adventures

Fresh out of College, at 22, I emigrated to South Africa with my first wife, Fredy, and three-year-old son, Bert. We stayed in what was then the Union of South Africa for eleven years. During that time Martine, my daughter, and Rudy, my youngest son were born, and apart from that many, very many things happened. 

In the twenty stories you will find in this book, I tell in, what reviewers have described as, an amusing and spirited fashion, about my somewhat chaotic upbringing and my equally chaotic and haphazard existence in apartheid-torn South Africa during the nineteen-sixties. My witty and suspenseful tales are filled with engaging snippets of information about the country and its people.

          The following are two reviews by people born and bred in that country

:As a South African who grew up there during the sixties, I am struck by the perceptive manner in which Thorbecke sketches the beauty of my country and the spirit and character of my people!   -Clarabelle van Niekerk-

These stories transport me back to the sounds and smells of my birthplace. The sounds of African herds thundering through the veldt and the smell of the first drops of rain settling into the parched red earth.  -Peggy Gerson-

Click here to buy So Long Europe, Hello South Africa at Amazon.com

2. How to Fail as a Slumlord

And Other Stories

      In this second volume of short stories, I tell about our struggle to make a living during our first years in St. Petersburg, FL, where we had come to, after ten prosperous years in Switzerland. Like most people, you will want to know why we left Heidie’s lofty Alps behind for the flooded shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and all I can tell you we thought the grass would be greener on the other side of the fence. In a way it was. In some other ways, it wasn’t. In the event you want to find out more,

Buy “How to Fail as a Slumlord” here !!!  (Please)

3. Swimming Upstream

Some Sense and Nonsense

This is my third collection of short stories, opinions, and memoirs. Some were published in local papers and magazines, some in an anthology, published by the Sautee Writers, of which I am a founding member.

In some of these stories, I state my views in blunt and unapologetic terms with satirical overtones. My strong feelings for the environment, the climate, and all animal life, including human life, are clearly on display.

Like my other books, Swimming Upstream is available at Amazon.com and can be found here

Apart from the above three books in the English language I also published two volumes of short stories in Dutch (Nederlands). They are also available at Amazon and can be found under my name, Herman Thorbecke and the titles.

Bilingual Gebabbel  –  Verhalen in Dutch and Double Dutch 

And

75 Mijmeringen en Verhalen die tevoren verschenen in

“De Krant”.

Please check out our children’s books here