‘Bitter Pastoral’ – the voice of the land
28th, Sep 2012‘Bitter Pastoral – A Talk About the Cederberg’ is the title of an essay written by my friend Stephen Watson, a South African writer who died after a short illness in April 2011.
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Birds of East Africa: poetry and birdwatching
18th, Sep 2012Recently I’ve been learning about birds, and can now identify over 70 African birds by their calls, and a similar number by sight. Bird life in Lewa in the Northern Rangelands of Kenya is prolific, with over 400 species recorded in the area.
The Language of Dhows and Wind – Diani-Kilifi on the Kenyan Coast
15th, Sep 2012Sunrise on the Indian Ocean creates a visual effect more moving than any other sunrise I have seen.
Only Food Runs - a runner's diary, Limpopo province, South Africa
13th, Sep 2012‘Only food runs, Jean.' This is what I was told when I first broached the subject with Corne van Schwalyk, the marketing director of Ecotraining, a training provider of safari and nature guide courses in South Africa.
Pursuit as Happiness: on Hemingway, hunting and walking in Africa
13th, Sep 2012Pursuit as conversation…
Conversation and conservation – switch a couple of consonants around and here we have the same word. What might be the linkages between them?
To start with conversation:
‘X Factor for Academics’ – Auditioning for BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers
01st, Aug 2012‘Academics go head to head in X Factor-like talent contest’ – this is the sort of headline that accompanied the inaugural year of the BBC/AHRC’s scheme to train academics to be mainstream radio and television commentators and programme makers, launched in 2011.
Why is the government pulling the plug on Antarctic science?
29th, Jul 2012
Is virtual teaching the future for creative writing degrees?
11th, Jul 2012In the autumn of 2011 and into January 2012 I taught one of the workshops for the innovative Write Forward – Writing the City collaboration between Birkbeck College and the
Millionaire Boot Camp for Authors report
10th, Jul 2012‘Ok people! Take out your paper and pens,’ Stephanie calls. ‘What are you going to do to change your lives?
The Apartheid City
10th, Jul 2012One of the enduring images of Apartheid is the signage of segregation; some of these, now housed in the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, are reproduced in an elegantly analytical essay that accompanies photographer Steve Bloom’s exhibition of his street photography from the 1970s.