21 February 2021 — Publication of Trans Memoir, “Robert: A Queer & Crooked Memoir for the not so Straight & Narrow” by Robert Hamblin, South Africa
Published in February 2021 by Jacana Media, Robert Hamblin’s “Robert: A Queer & Crooked Memoir for the not so Straight & Narrow” became the fourth South African trans memoir after “Always Anastacia: A Transgender Live in South Africa” by Anastacia Tomson, Landa Mabenga’s “Becoming Him: A Trans Memoir of Triumph”, followed by Elise Bishop’s “Twee Lewens” and Tshiamo Modisane’s “I Am Tshiamo: My Transition to Self-Acceptance and Womanhood”.
The book
“traverses a childhood peppered with a cast of unique and marginalised characters. At the centre is Billy, his flamboyantly queer conman father and the mysterious, seductive Alexis. Robert’s childhood self is twisted in a confusing gender identity crisis. Being a girl does just not sit well for him. Alexis seduces his teenage self in an attempt to teach him how to be a woman. As he grows more obsessed, he loses her to the underbelly of Joburg’s strip clubs. Although Robert transitions from female to male, this is not a predictable trans-story of someone trapped in the wrong body. Rather, a tale of a human who refuses to live in a box and who questions the straight trajectory. Through excavating his past, Robert confronts and begins healing from racism and the confines of gender.” (Source: https://www.roberthamblin.net/robert-a-queer-crooked-memoir)
Watch our interview with Robert, 3 April 2026
In the media
About Robert Hamblin:
Robert A. Hamblin is an artist, published author, afab-feminist and parent. His art flounces around gender and bodily things. He seeks a reconnection with nature for queer people. His fine art work is concerned with masculinity, power, whiteness and the performance of these constructs. Hamblin’s conceptually driven, painterly photographic works have been exhibited locally and internationally. He has received critical acclaim for his compelling works that contribute to debates around body politics in a post-apartheid era. South African Supreme Court Justice Edwin Cameron described Robert’s memoir as “A remarkable feat that challenges people to examine not just their own sexuality and identity but their very humanity.” Robert was a founding board member of Gender Dynamix, and later years the Advocacy Manager.