He was noted for his interest in Jungianism and the Kalahari Bushmen, his experiences during World War II, as well as his relationships with notable figures such as King Charles III and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
[4] His father, Christiaan Willem Hendrik van der Post (1856–1914), a Hollander from Leiden, had emigrated to South Africa with his parents and married Johanna Lubbe in 1889.
He spent his early childhood years on the family farm, and acquired a taste for reading from his father's extensive library, which included Homer and Shakespeare.
In 1926, he and two other rebellious writers, Roy Campbell and William Plomer, published a satirical magazine called Voorslag (whip lash) which criticised imperialist systems; it lasted for three issues before being forced to shut down because of its controversial views.
[5] Later that year he took off for three months with Plomer and sailed to Tokyo and back on a Japanese freighter, the Canada Maru, an experience which produced books by both authors later in life.
The Woolfs were members of the literary and artistic Bloomsbury group, and through Plomer's introductions, van der Post also met figures such as Arthur Waley, J. M. Keynes and E. M.
When the Second World War began in 1939, he found himself torn between England and South Africa, his new love and his family; his career was at a dead end, and he was in depressed spirits, often drinking heavily.
[7] In May 1940, van der Post volunteered for the British Army and upon completion of officer training in January 1941 he was sent to East Africa in the Intelligence Corps as a captain.
Once, depressed, he wrote in his diary: "It is one of the hardest things in this prison life: the strain caused by being continually in the power of people who are only half-sane and live in a twilight of reason and humanity."
He had gained the trust of the nationalist leaders such as Mohammad Hatta and Sukarno and warned both British Prime Minister Clement Attlee and the Allied Supreme Commander in South East Asia, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, whom he met in London in October 1945, that the country was on the verge of blowing up.
With the war over and his business with the army concluded, van der Post returned to South Africa in late 1947 to work at the Natal Daily News, but with the election of the National Party and the onset of apartheid he traveled back to London.
In May 1949, he was commissioned by the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC) to "assess the livestock capacities of the uninhabited Nyika and Mulanje plateaux of Nyasaland" (now part of Malawi).
In 1953, he published his third book, The Face Beside the Fire, a semi-autobiographical novel about a psychologically "lost" artist in search of his soul and soul-mate, which clearly shows Jung's influence on his thinking and writing.
In 1955, the BBC commissioned van der Post to return to the Kalahari in search of the Bushmen, a journey that became a six-part television documentary series in 1956.
Van der Post had become a respected television personality, had introduced the world to the Kalahari Bushmen, and was considered an authority on Bushman folklore and culture.
Ingaret and he moved to Aldeburgh, Suffolk, where they became involved with a circle of friends that included an introduction to then-Prince Charles, whom he then took on a safari to Kenya in 1977 and with whom he had a close and influential friendship for the rest of his life.
[10] In 1982, he fell and injured his back and used the hiatus from tennis and skiing to write an autobiography called Yet Being Someone Other (1982), which discussed his love of the sea and his journey to Japan with Plomer in 1926.
By now, Ingaret was slipping into senility, and he spent much time with the sculptor Frances Baruch, an old friend (who made a bust of van der Post).
In 1984, his son John (who had gone on to be an engineer in London) died, and van der Post spent time with his youngest daughter Lucia and her family.
[6] In old age, Sir Laurens van der Post was involved with many projects, from the worldwide conservationist movement, to setting up a centre of Jungian studies in Cape Town.
In 1996, he tried to prevent the eviction of the Bushmen from their homeland in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, which had been set up for that purpose, but ironically it was his work in the 1950s to promote the land for cattle ranching that led to their eventual removal.
The funeral took place on 20 December in London, attended by Zulu chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Prince Charles, Margaret Thatcher, and many friends and family.