C. J. Driver, always known as Jonty, was born in Cape Town in 1939. He was the author of ten collections of poetry, five novels, and numerous works of non-fiction.

As president of the anti-apartheid National Union of South African Students in the mid-1960s, Jonty was detained in solitary confinement by the South African security police, and subsequently fled to England. He became stateless and his writings were banned. His professional life was spent as a schoolmaster at Berkhamsted School and Wellington College, as well as in Hong Kong.

‍He died in Bristol in 2023.