ABSTRACT
Alan Stewart Paton was born on January 11, 1903, in Pietermaritzburg, Natal, South Africa. He was the eldest of the four children (Alan, Atholl, Eunice, and Ailsa) of James and Eunice Paton, a thrifty couple whose Christadelphian influences later found resonance in the compassionate prose of their progeny. James Paton, who came from Glasgow, Scotland, was given to lapses into sullen, violent moods when he would beat his sons. Paton left home hating his father, but in later years acknowledged that this emotion had abated.
