13 Gillian Stead Eilersen, Bessie Head: Thunder Behind Her Ears, Capetown, David Philip, 1995, p.40.

(…) during her early years as a reporter in Cape Town she had typed out cookery recipes and done other hack jobs, as well as covering immorality cases in the courts - a much more realistic picture of the scope of her work. About three years later she was to use some of her experiences as a reporter to provide the colourful and disturbing background for her first novel, The Cardinals.