“Life is an adventure and you need to be an amateur, not a professional”

Alasdair Verschoyle is a South African migrant, Irish historian and bookseller whose life has taken him from Cape Town to Kildare, and into the pages of Ireland’s past.

A smoky barbecue in a sunny Kildare back garden, paired with some whiskey and music. That’s Alasdair Verschoyle, to a tee.

At 73, he is a long way from Cape Town, coming to Ireland back in 2000. Growing up with an Irish father and English mother, it seemed fitting he would eventually be back. He was raised in a predominantly British part of Cape Town. He noticed from an early age the differences between him and the Afrikaners, and it was when he first started noticing the societal struggles of apartheid.

“From an early time on I was very aware of apartheid, Nelson Mandela was already being arrested… I grew up with a strange feeling about identity and conflict.”

 

Among Books

Verschoyle’s parents emigrated to South Africa in the 1930s. His father was Irish and his English mother also had Irish ancestry.

Verschoyle’s early life was not easy. His parents separated when he was 15, and by 16 he had already left school. He entered the printing trade, where he started to become immersed in the world of literature.

His mother passed away when he was 17, leaving him to navigate adulthood at a young age. It was through work, rather than school, that he began to find his direction. 

He eventually secured a position at a publishing house, expanding his experience beyond the shop floor. Working with both imported and locally produced books exposed him to a wide range of writing and ideas.

For Alasdair, the book trade evolved from his career into a way for him to understand the world beyond the one he had grown up in.

By the 1980s, Verschoyle was becoming more and more politically active. His experiences had given him a strong interest in racial equality and the possibility of a freer society. He began to see the country around him more critically, and the injustices of apartheid became increasingly difficult to separate from everyday life.

“South Africa gave me a foundation for wanting to see equality of races and a freer society, where people aren’t living in fear for their lives.”

 

The pull of Ireland

Although Verschoyle’s professional life was firmly rooted in South Africa, Ireland was never entirely absent.

His father was passionate about history, genealogy and archaeology. In 1960, while still living in Cape Town, he became president of the Donegal Historical Society. It was at this time that Alasdair and his father went on a trip to Ireland, whose interests already had a lasting effect on Alasdair.

The books in his father’s office became an inheritance in more ways than one. They helped introduce him to Ireland’s past and encouraged a curiosity that would eventually become central to his own work.

During the 1990s, he visited Ireland every year. Each visit strengthened the connection, until he finally made the decision to move in 2000 with his wife and two children. Before leaving South Africa, he had reached the top of the publishing world and was ready to leave the book trade behind.

But Ireland had other plans.

“On landing I got a job instantly in the book world. I was quite happy to leave the book world, but I ended up being an agent for numerous British publishers in Ireland.”

Loss, family and the meaning of home

For all the professional milestones, Verschoyle’s idea of success has changed over time.

Reaching the upper levels of publishing in South Africa was a significant achievement for him, but he places his family alongside, and perhaps beyond, those career accomplishments.

He now has six grandchildren, and his life is centred around the Naas and Dublin area, where much of his family lives.

Donegal remains particularly close to him. He describes it as his wonderland, a place where historical research can lead him down one rabbit hole after another. If it were solely his decision, he says, he would live there. The practical reality, however, is that the rest of his family is based further south.

“When I first went there in 1960, Donegal became something else for me. I love Donegal with all my heart. The only reason I am not there is because all my family is up here, but at the drop of I would go down there and maybe that will still happen one day.”

That tension between the place he loves and the place where his family lives has led him to reflect on what it means to belong somewhere.

For Verschoyle, home is not necessarily a straightforward question of birthplace or nationality. His life has taken him across continents, through different cultures and into a country that was familiar through ancestry long before it became his home.

He is now planning to explore the idea of a “home place” in a book of his own.

“The journey home is not an end point, nor did it have a beginning point, it’s on the road as you live. That’s the real challenge.”

Looking towards the next generation

Verschoyle’s outlook on the future is informed by the political and social changes he witnessed in South Africa, as well as his experiences since coming to Ireland.

He believes that the world has always experienced periods of upheaval, and that society moves in cycles. But his response is not to retreat from society. Instead, he advocates for people to come together in smaller groups, nurture friendships, practise tolerance and take responsibility for how they treat one another.

He believes strongly in the potential of younger generations. Mentoring young people is something he particularly enjoys, and he remains optimistic that society can improve.

His advice is grounded in the everyday: work hard at maintaining friendships, be tolerant of others and find joy in the people around you.

He has seen how social structures can separate people, and his response has been to emphasise the relationships that bring them together.

 

A history still being written

Verschoyle’s connection to Donegal remains a constant in his life. His father’s humour, their conversations and his father’s love of Irish history all contributed to the pull he eventually felt towards Ireland.

That connection continues through his research and writing. The past isn’t something to be recorded, but something to be explored, questioned and understood.

Born and raised in South Africa, with Irish ancestry and a family life established in Ireland, he does not fit neatly into a single place or category.

Instead, his life has been shaped by the movement between them.

At 73, he continues to look forward, whether through his writing, his historical research or the time he spends with his family. The questions that have followed him from Cape Town to Kildare, about belonging, equality and what makes a place home, remain unresolved in the most productive sense.

For Verschoyle, perhaps, that is part of the appeal. The fact that there is always another story to uncover.