Tracking Deon Meyer

He is currently the South African author whose name is on everybody’s lips. IRNA VAN ZYL managed to speak to the thriller writer Deon Meyer in between book launches, TV appearances and awards ceremonies.

Deon Meyer is a very busy man. In the last three months his TV series Trackers has attracted the highest audience figures for any series (including Game of Thrones) on the small screen; his lastest book in English, The Last Hunt, was published just in time for the holiday rush; and in the meantime Prooi (the Afrikaans version of The Last Hunt) won a highly acclaimed award, just for good measure.

HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE SO FAMOUS, I ASK HIM.

Uncomfortable, he admits. “An author does not belong on TV in front of the cameras. An author is a bit of a voyeur, and if you become recognisable, it takes away your ability to observe and to listen.” On top of all the publicity comes the wave of social media attention, he says. It’s not that he is against the publicity – Meyer has always been a very patient and polite interviewee – it’s the time that seems to dissipate that worries him. “The spotlight is much sharper and bigger than anything I’ve experienced before.”

We chat in the boardroom of a content-media agency – an environment he knows well from a previous life when he was a consultant on the brand strategy for a well-known motorcycle brand. Not that he even owns a motorcycle anymore.