The Scissors Murder | Summer School

THE SCISSORS MURDER: FROM FACT TO FICTION

David Cornwell, writer and instructional designer

Friday 22 January  1.00 pm  COURSE FEES R115; Staff and students R58

Hell of a Country, the critically acclaimed second novel by David Cornwell, is a creative reimagining of the infamous Scissors Murder from 1974, when Marlene Lehnberg conspired with Marthinus Choegoe to murder Susanna van der Linde, the wife of her lover, Christiaan. In this lecture, David will give an overview of this fascinating true crime story and explain the process of turning the facts of the case into fiction. He will discuss the inspiration for writing this story, including the apartheid-era power dynamics that shape the narrative, and the role of genre in the novel’s construction. Through a close reading of lines and excerpts from the book, he will also draw out some of the novel’s key themes and introduce its most important literary influences.

Recommended reading

Cornwell, D. 2025. Hell of a Country. Cape Town: Kwela Books.

Gilligan, J. 2003. Shame, Guilt, and Violence. Social Research: An International Quarterly, 70(4), pp. 1149–1180.

La Guma, A. 1968. A Walk in the Night and Other Stories (Vol. 35). Northwestern University Press. Long, W. 2021. Nation on the Couch: Inside South Africa’s Mind. Cape Town: Melinda Ferguon Books

TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/performance.aspx?itemid=1602814219

David Cornwell is a writer, filmmaker and musician based in Johannesburg. He has published two novels and four screen plays. He attended Kingswood College and then Rhodes University, where he graduated with honours in English and philosophy. He began publishing stories while at university, with several appearing in US literary journals and magazines such as Quiddity International Literary Journal and The Chiron Review. In 2010, David enrolled in the University of Cape Town’s Masters in Creative Writing program, where his supervisor was Damon Galgut

His debut novel, , Like it Matters, was published by Penguin Random House in 2016 and was longlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize and shortlisted for the 9mobile Award for Best African Fiction Debut. He has appeared at the Franschhoek Literary Festival (2016), Open Book Festival (2016) and Karoo Writers Festival (2017).