SCRIPTS & BOOKS

Stories that take us into other worlds

— and reveal something of our own.

Visual spectacle with compelling human story, creating worlds you can get lost in. Novels, true-life stories and screenplays from award-winning writer and filmmaker Desmond Denton.

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Desmond Denton seated in a gallery of gilt-framed paintings

Welcome,

fellow wanderer of stories.

I am drawn to characters at a crossroads — what they believe, what they will sacrifice, and what remains when the world they know begins to fall apart. Pull up a chair. Turn the page.

Desmond

FROM THE SHELF

The Books

Grounded human drama, speculative fiction, survival, mystery and adventure. Some stories begin on the page; others travel between novel and screen.

End of a Rainbow book cover Secrets · Diamonds · Redemption William Austen book cover Power · Grace · Change Torn Earth book cover History · Memory · Unity Spelonk: A World Undone book cover Survival · Loyalty · Sacrifice The Colony book cover Faith · Family · Belonging
End of a Rainbow book cover

I · LATEST NOVEL · CRIME THRILLER

End of a Rainbow

A murder. Missing diamonds. A journalist travelling halfway around the world.

When a New York journalist travels to South Africa to investigate a murder connected to vanished diamonds, the search leads into a conspiracy decades in the making. At its centre is Barend Visagie, a legendary bank robber haunted by his past and desperate to reunite with his lost daughter.

Corruption, smugglers, compromised loyalties and old wounds draw a growing circle into the same conflict — and even those who believe they understand the game may discover they are merely pieces on somebody else’s board.

In a world where everyone has something to hide, the greatest cost may not be the diamonds themselves, but what people are willing to sacrifice to possess them.

WHERE TO BUY

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II · INSPIRED BY A TRUE LIFE

William Austen

It feels good to be powerful — but at what cost?

Not a conventional adventure, but a confession: the account of a man born into hardship and hardened by a life marked by turmoil and abuse. From childhood bullying to the pull of street gangs, from military service to a troubled return home, William’s life becomes a journey through the consequences of violence and the hunger to belong.

When he falls in love with a young woman whose own life is scarred by abuse, the two try to escape — a path into crime, drug culture and a world where the promise of control conceals a deeper loss of freedom.

Can a person shaped by destructive experiences still find another way to live?

The screenplay received Best Action Screenplay at the Angel Film Festival.

WHERE TO BUY · PAPERBACK ISBN 978-1-7371219-1-6

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William Austen book cover
A stack of Torn Earth paperbacks
Desmond and Vera Denton on a grand spiral staircase
Desmond & Vera DentonWRITTEN TOGETHER

III · HISTORICAL NOVEL · ALSO PUBLISHED AS TULBAGH EARTHQUAKE

Torn Earth

In 36 hours, a handful of diverse lives are shaken apart — and drawn closer together.

On 29 September 1969 an earthquake struck the Tulbagh valley, leaving a community forced to confront the fragility of everyday life. But a disaster is never only a story about what collapses. It is also about the people who must find one another in the aftermath.

Through fictional characters from every part of the community, the novel considers class, race and the divisions inherited from South Africa’s past. Historical photographs bring the real landscape of the disaster into conversation with the imagined lives of the characters.

“A THRILLING MASTERPIECE!”

“A fantastic novel that kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time!”

The reviewer singled out how the tension escalates from a calm Sunday morning to the night the valley breaks, and how the writers explore the human, psychological side of disaster.

MEGAN BOLLAND · UK BOOK REVIEWER · VIA SAFFA MAG
“Die skrywer skryf met deernis as hy van die kinderhuis kinders praat.”

The author writes with compassion when speaking about the children from the orphanage.

ANSCHEN CONRADIE · GOODREADS ★★★★
“Wel gedaan Desmond Denton.”

Well done, Desmond Denton.

INEKE · GOODREADS ★★★★

WHERE TO BUY

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IV · A WORLD UNDONE

Spelonk

A world lost. A boy in grave danger. A man on a deadly quest.

In the ruins of a ravaged Cape Town, bounty hunter Dante is hunted by former allies and haunted by a dark past. Survival has become a daily calculation. Trust is dangerous. Every encounter carries a price.

But when Dante must protect a young boy, the rules that have kept him alive begin to change — and a man who learned to survive alone must face a harder possibility: that survival may mean becoming responsible for someone else.

The world of Spelonk lives on the page, on screen as a feature film written and directed by Desmond, and in the Spelonk Survival Guide.

WHERE TO BUY

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Spelonk: A World Undone book cover
Spelonk posters and ebook edition
From page to screen — Hollywood in Toto called the film’s world “a fascinating realm.”
The Colony book cover

V · NEW NOVEL · RELEASING NOVEMBER

The Colony

They told him not to fall in love with the kids.

Tony Sands arrives at a weathered Texas property that looks almost biblical and finds twelve teenagers stepping out of state vans, carrying everything they have left: a bag, a file, and histories written by people who have already decided what they will become. And Tony is given one simple warning — don’t get attached. Attachment makes the data unreliable.

But what the system cannot measure is what happens when someone stays. On a thousand acres held together by faith, hard work and people who refuse to give up, Tony discovers that these children need someone willing to sit on a porch in the dark. Someone who will leave the light on. Someone who believes they are worth waiting for.

Love does not make the past disappear. Grief still comes. Faith is tested. The fences are breached. And when the darkness finally reaches the gates of Bethany, Tony and the children must decide what they are willing to risk for one another.

Sometimes healing does not begin with fixing someone. Sometimes it begins with staying.

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A few pages from the desk, by candlelight. Every story begins with a first page.

END OF A RAINBOW · PROLOGUE

Have you ever chased after a rainbow? Probably not. Only a fool would believe in such things. Chances are, you’ve probably read about the concept in a storybook once upon a time. Promises of discovering a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Riches have a way of blinding a person and removing one’s sense of reality. But what if you could have more than you ever imagined? Would you take it?

The cautious ones whisper that those who pursue the rainbow might never return, that they meet a destructive fate. Others claim it’s all in vain, or worse, a myth. But I’ve stood at the rainbow’s end, and let me tell you that it’s no myth.

Be warned, though — at some point, you will face the question above and the consequences of your decisions. Only those who catch the heart of it will truly understand.

This might seem like the beginning of a tragedy, but don’t be fooled quite so easily.

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TORN EARTH · SUNDAY, 1969

Much of the activities in town cease on a Sunday morning. The valley seems almost peaceful. The church bells echo through the empty town streets and beyond.

✦ ✦ ✦

The shaking and the loud noise are such a shock to Truia’s body that she starts screaming, even before she is completely awake.

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SPELONK · CHAPTER ONE

A silent dusty road, once a lush landscape of beauty and reverence… Now it’s a desert land of waste, nothing but decay, death its closest friend. The only sound in the distance coming from an old Royal Enfield motorbike…

The figure on it, a legend at most and myth to others, cloaked from head to toe. No one knows how he looks until death creeps from his hands. He doesn’t creep in the shadows; he is the shadows himself! A man that carries what many want. Many would kill for, and many would die for it.

They say that men who walk in solitude across the desert are in search of one of two things: purpose, or death.

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WILLIAM AUSTEN · PROLOGUE

Through the crowded streets came a man running as though the Devil himself was nipping at his heels. He was a large man with a shaven head. A bruiser in every meaning of the word. His pace was not towards something. But rather his urgency was to get away from something, or someone.

His name is William. Everyone knew of William Austen, a hard man with violence on his resume. His shirt splattered with blood, whose blood was only known to those that chased him.

He stood between his pursuers and a high-wire fence he couldn’t scale fast enough. His heart beats in his ear like a war drum as he thinks to himself: “What do they say? It’s not the size of the dog in a fight, but the size of the fight in the dog. And now the Devil’s Dance. It’s been like this since the very beginning!”

Keep reading ›

THE COLONY · COMING IN NOVEMBER

They told him not to fall in love with the kids.

Violence. Abandonment. Grief. Silence. Their phones are locked away. Their pasts are documented. Their futures are measured in outcomes.

And Tony is given one simple warning: Don’t get attached. Attachment makes the data unreliable.

But what the system cannot measure is what happens when someone stays.

Pre-order ›

What is the story only you can tell — and how can it be told in a way that someone else will never forget?

Desmond Denton

ON THE WRITING DESK

Stories Still Taking Shape

The Blue Arrow cover art: children at a glowing toy shop window in the snow

CUMBERLAND, MARYLAND · CHRISTMAS 1924

The Blue Arrow

Trains, toys, winter storms and hidden secrets.

A historical adventure shaped by old-fashioned wonder, childhood imagination and the emotional world of a changing America. As Peter Dawson, Anya Karpova, Tommy Calder and Edward Blackstone move through a world of snow-lit shop windows and steam, children from very different circumstances become connected by an extraordinary chain of events.

What happens when the things children need most — belonging, courage, generosity, and the attention of those they love — are placed just beyond their reach?

IN DEVELOPMENT · PUBLICATION DETAILS TO BE ANNOUNCED

A vintage Torpedo typewriter on a wooden desk

A STORYTELLER WITH A FILMMAKER’S EYE

From Page to Screen

A screenplay must work as a story before it can become a film; a novel must create a world vivid enough for a reader to inhabit. Desmond thinks not only about what happens in a story, but what the audience sees, hears, feels and discovers along the way.

MFA, AFDA Film University · postgraduate studies in Communication Science and Psychology, UNISA · Berlinale Talents · Big Fish Producers Program. Festival recognition includes Monaco, Apollo, ICFF and the Angel Film Festival.

Spelonksci-fi action drama
Between Ashes and Hopefeature drama
Springflower / Lenteblomsocial-impact drama
Anderkant die Stiltefeature drama
Earth Tears / Die Aarde Skeuradaptation
24: Hours with the Makersdocumentary series
Turning Point · The Journey Hometelevision & documentary

SHORT FILMS

Fatherland / Vaderland · Infidel · Land of Fear · Scarytown · Circle of Fate · Adoption

FROM THE FILMMAKING COMMUNITY

Kind Words

Professional testimonials from collaborators and industry colleagues — not book reviews.

“Your professionalism and work ethic made a big difference in accomplishing the production.”
DEON MEYER · AUTHOR
“Desmond is a dedicated hard worker and has high aspirations.”
ALBY JAMES · PRODUCER
“It was an absolute pleasure working with you! Thank you for all of your hard work & dedication, and for making my SA film experience that much more memorable.”
STEPHANIE BERAN · ACTRESS
Desmond Denton by lamplight

THE NEXT STORY MAY BEGIN HERE

Every book begins with a first page.

Every film begins with an image, a question, or a moment that refuses to disappear. If you have read one of my books, I would love to hear what stayed with you.

If you are interested in an adaptation, a collaboration, an interview or a conversation about storytelling, please get in touch.

And if you are discovering this work for the first time — welcome. There are more stories on the way.

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Keep reading. Keep looking.

There is always more beneath the surface.