Shirley, Goodness & Mercy is a heart-warming, yet compellingly honest story about a young boy growing up in Newclare, Coronationvill and Riverlea during the apartheid era. Despite van Wyk's later becoming involved in the 'struggle', this is not a book about racial politics. Instead, it is a delightful account of one boy's special relationship with the relatives, friends and neighbours who made up his community, and of the important coping role laughter and humour played during the years he spent in bleak and dusty townships. In Shirley, Goodness & Mercy Chris van Wyk - poet, novelist and short story writer - had created a truly remarkable work, at once both thought-provoking and vastly entertaining.

'Van Wyk's strength is to look at the world as if with the innocent eyes of a child and to convey this hopeful vision to others, to recapture the resilience of childhood so that it is not lost but continues, to shape adult existence and to fortify our collective sense of self.' - Sowetan.

Chris van Wyk was born in Baragwanath hospital, Soweto, on 19 July 1957, and educated at Riverlea High School. He lived in Riverlea for many years before moving to Northcliff, Johannesburg, where he worked as a full-time writer. He wrote poetry (his poems have been published in Denmark, Sweden, France, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canada), books for children and teenagers, short stories and novels. Chris van Wyk died of cancer at the age of 57 on 3 October 2014.