Robbie Hift holds three university degrees and taught English language and Computer Science at high schools and Technikon in Natal for many years before retiring from teaching in 1993. He came to live in Jeffreys Bay where he operated Riverside Computer Consultants for 16 years before opening his El Shaddai Publishing Company in 2005 to publish his books.

He is a compulsive traveler and surfer and he lived in the USA for many years. Later he became fascinated by South America and its people and made surfing trips to Chile then up to Peru and many years later to Brazil.

Robbie says, “When I was a young man, I lived in England for three years building a recording studio. Any chance I got, I was off to France, Spain, Italy, Holland and I even slipped across the Med to Morocco, but it was too hot for me and the people too volatile!” Years later, I flew over to Mauritius on two occasions to surf Tamarin Bay and One Eye.  Indonesia is my second great love affair, after Jeffreys Bay, and I have made five surfing trips over to Bali, to Java, to Nusa Lembogan and to Sri Lanka. Then there was a time for several years when I was flying into China every year to explore the electronic markets.”

Robbie Hift has written and published over 100 short stories and fourteen coffee table books over the last forty years. Legends of Jeffreys Bay was an instant success and it first came out in 1999. Since then he has produced seven editions of that book. Nelson Mandela Bay: From Century to Century follows the photographic history of Port Elizabeth from the time of the first cameras right up till the present day.  A Call to Worship and Blinded By the Light are some of his more spiritual books.

In 2019 he wrote Will You Build Me a Cross?  And Escape from the California Cult. He created his own newspaper, The Eastern Cape Mirror in 2010, which is a “good news, positive” community newspaper.

He has been happily married to Alta for 32 years and they have a daughter Annabelle, who is a gifted singer.