Michele van Rensburg

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Michele van Rensburg was born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa to parents of English and Afrikaans heritage.   She developed an interest in social history as a young adult, but she was unable to pursue an academic career until she was in her late 30’s and had moved to the United Kingdom.   Having worked in the business sector while in South Africa, she maintained a strong sense of social conscience whilst undertaking years of voluntary work in disadvantaged communities.

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Living in England, provided the ideal opportunity to develop her social conscience further, and she studied through the Open University, gained an honours degree and became a social worker.   She worked for 10 years as a local authority child protection social worker.   This was followed by 10 years as a children’s guardian in the Family Court system, simultaneously working 5 years as an associate lecturer at the Open University, tutoring and mentoring the next generation of social workers.

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The human stories gathered throughout her life in South Africa, as well as her work with vulnerable children and families in the United Kingdom, led to many characters and ‘stories’ being locked inside her mind.    After taking early retirement, she began to return to these stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things and people in high positions with feet of clay. This inspired her to share these tales with you.  

 

Michele van Rensburg is married and lives in North Yorkshire.   She has two adult sons.