Daddy's Girl

Daddy's Girl, follows the trials and tribulations of the central character, a South African girl Patricia. Born in 1957 in East London, she is beset by early parental bereavement and famililial dysfunctionality. We witness her struggle, to come to terms with catastrophe after catastrophe within a society blighted by prejudice and apartheid.Set against this background, she attempts to make sense of her world whilst living within a home plagued by sexual misconduct, chronic illness, alcoholism, psychological abuse. Other stories are interwoven with Mavis's story, partly factual stories of people who touched her life, some are tales of hope, sadly many are tales of sorrow and despair.We follow her story as she and one of her sisters are taken into care. We sense Mavis's longing to go back home. The difficulties she and her sister face in experiencing sexual abuse imposed upon them by older girls. We explore Mavis's horror and confusion when introduced to the radical beliefs of the minister of the local Dutch Reformed Church.After three years, the girls return home and Mavis finds that she cannot settle at school. No-one would describe her peers at school as kind, at thirteen, she befriends an older male who introduces her to the world of psychedelic music, hallucinogenic drugs and marijuana and so her story continues.