Her first works of note were three volumes of memoirs published from 1945 to 1953 dealing with her travels throughout the world during the period before, during and just after World War II with her husband. Places visited included Britain, the Mediterranean, the Balkans and China. In the early 1950s she went on a substantial tour of Africa, which is included in her later published final three volumes of memoirs.

In the 1950s, she also began publishing novels, starting with Valley of the Vines in 1955, which sold more than 600 000 copies in English, and was translated into at least nine European languages. Although her novels principal themes were romantic, several sources state them as also important for their sociopolitical commentary of South Africa at the time. Her second novel, Nor the Moon by Night was made into a British film of the same name. In America, it was released as Elephant Gun.