Biography

About Jonathan Laverick

Jonathan Laverick (1975-) grew up in County Durham, completed his degree at Durham, and did his teacher training in Durham. When he became convinced that he was being followed by Durham Cathedral, he ran away to Botswana. This decision was influenced by a job advert that had elephants in it.

Spending most of his adult life in Botswana, with pit-stops in the Bahamas and Norway, he is now the Director of A-levels at a prestigious school in Gaborone. Having played football for the Bahamian national champions (three games!) and having been a successful player/manager (Division 2 Champions) in Botswana, his career came to an end with a goal at the home to the Zebras.

Forced into growing up, he became Botswana's leading aviation artist (in a field of one) and during the research for one of his paintings he came across a story of witchcraft and murder that was too good not to tell. Hence his first 'proper' book, The Kalahari Killings, published in 2015. This was also the year that his daughter, India, was born and that he learnt to fly. At the end of 2015, he slept.

He followed up The Kalahari Killings with a collection of children's stories about a father and son team flying around Botswana in their microlight. From haunted hangars to lost treasures, and from diamond smugglers to elephant poachers, they have a great time in James in the Kalahari. The follow up, a darker adventure where James tracks down his father's murderers, is now available as James and the Smugglers.

Botswana celebrated 100 years of powered flight in 2020 and Laverick used the lockdown in Gaborone to write the definitive history of early aviation (1920-1970) in Botswana, ably aided by Bruce Morgan - the son of the Managing Director of the country's first national airline. Botswana National Airways was published in early 2021.

He still lives and works in Gaborone. More details can be found at bw.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-laverick-07732433