Bordering We were blocked, stopped and stuck at the border between Mexico and Belize for five long hours. It was a strange way to exist – a state of waiting in which nothing happens. We didn’t have the right papers. We were in Limbo, that place of meaningless suspension in which you wait endlessly for judgement on your soul. Being […]
Andy Anderson
My friend and a friend of Zambian art and artists Andy Anderson, a very kind and good friend died recently. I remember him with great affection and gratitude. He was not only a personal friend but a committed supporter of art in Zambia. As an architect, he had a love of design and the visual arts as anyone who visited […]
Simon Zukas
Simon Zukas, a kind and principled freedom fighter There are people in one’s life who are so important and yet so much woven into the fabric of that life that you take them for granted. This is true even of the people in our families, parents, siblings and also spouses. There comes a sudden moment when you realise that you […]
Food is Love and Love is Food and both are needed
Lovely Men and the Politics of Food One thing leads to another. I have tomato blight in my potager so I gathered all the green tomatoes I could before they turned black and then went on a hunt for a green tomato chutney recipe. My modern South African cookbook makes use of tinned products and tame store-bought spices so I […]
Oak Apples, Ink and Writing
Walking to the river ‘Look! ‘I said as John and I walked to the river. ‘Oak apples!’ I stopped surprised at myself. ‘How do I know that’s what they are? How did I recognise them?’ I’m not English, I haven’t ever lived in the English countryside and I haven’t spent that many years in Europe. Where did that piece of […]