Richard Rive reflects on his life as a young boy, being shaped by the neighbourhood he grew up in. He takes the reader down Caledon Street, to the ironically named `Buckingham Palace’, where we meet the fictional representations of the residents of Buckingham Palace. He acknowledges and honours the generosity and compassion of a marginalised community that strives for recognition, equality and a place to stay, under the shadow of apartheid.

`Buckingham Palace’, District Six is a novel filled with bitterness, anger and regret, as well as longing, humour and hope.

It is:

a novel about a country – where the apartheid laws defined who people were,

a novel about a community – where religion, colour and class did not define who people were,

a novel about a place – where there was acceptance of who people were