tlali drew on her experiences as an office clerk for her first book, "muriel at metropolitan", a semi-autobiographical novel whose "viewpoint is a new one in south african literature". although written in 1969, it was not published for six years, being rejected by many publishing houses in south africa. in 1975 ravan press published "muriel at metropolitan": "only after removing certain extracts they thought would certainly offend the censorship board — the south african literary watchdog. but despite this effort, the novel was banned almost immediately after publication because the censorship board pronounced it undesirable in the south african political context." the book reached a wider audience after its publication in 1979 by longman under the title "between two worlds", and its subsequent translation into other languages, including japanese, polish, german and dutch. in 1988, tlali said in a paper delivered in amsterdam before the committee against censorship: "to the philistines, the banners of books, the critics... we black south african writers (who are faced with the task of conscientizing our people and ourselves are writing for those whom we know are the relevant audience. we are not going to write in order to qualify into your definition of what you describe as 'true art'... our duty is to write for our people and about them."