TNSH Signing at the CTBF
Friday, June 8th, 2007I’m scheduled to sign copies of The New Suffolk Hymnbook at the Jacana stand during the Cape Town Book Fair, on Sunday 17 June at 1pm. Here is the poster Jacana has designed to promote the stint:
{category archive: The Margin}
A Token of Consolation
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
A friend made the dour observation recently that being on the longlist for an award is like waiting for someone to ask you to dance.
Neither she nor I was asked last night when the Sunday Times Fiction Prize longlist was winnowed from twenty-nine to a shortlist of five. The prize, at R75,000, is SA’s largest literary award.
We chaff may take consolation in this image, which I have pilfered from the Times‘ website. It’s the longlist, stacked - a frozen moment of promise.
If I was a literary bookie, meanwhile, I’d place extremely short odds on Marlene van Niekerk and Agaat to take the prize. It’s the thickest book of the bunch, close to the center. (Another friend points out that, in Agaat’s case, a translation is being judged, not an original work in English, which is quite irregular. But then again, SA’s literary politics are much like the real thing, haphazard - and what’s more, he’s on the shortlist.)
- Full Sunday Times fiction shortlist here; and non-fiction shortlist here.
Boswestblog Goes on (Brief) Sabbatical
Monday, January 15th, 2007Boswestblog will be on sabbatical for the rest of the month, while urgent literary and other matters are attended to.
In the interim, we present this special compilation of the “Boswestblog Top Ten” - as chosen by YT (no, not Air Togo, the Yukon Territory, or yellowTab) - for your perusal.
Peruse, peruse!
- The New Suffolk Hymnbook My novel, of course.
- The Laddy Jones Story Part One Short fiction involving Arsenal FC.
- Mandela’s Ego Reviewed by YT.
- Gasping Fish The B-blog logo.
- Notes from the Cape Town Book Fair Haiku by Gus Ferguson.
- Here Comes the Coda: Green Man & Silver Jews Prose paen by YT.
- Eid-ul-Fitr 1427, Rylands, Cape Town As reported by YT.
- Memories of the Ford Administration (Discontinued) Pertaining to YT’s youth.
- My Near West A photo-mosaic of sorts.
- Against Poets & Writers A rant of sorts.
Tags: Air Togo, Arsenal, Ben Oswest, Cape Town, Cape Town Book Fair, Eid, Eid ul Fitr, Gasping Fish, Gerald Ford, Green Man, Gus Ferguson, Haiku, Mandelas Ego, Poetry, Poets & Writers, Rylands, Silver Jews, South Africa, South African Literature, The Green Man Festival, The Laddy Jones Story Part One, The Margin, The New Suffolk Hymnbook, yellowTab, Yukon Territory
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Memories of the Ford Administration (Discontinued)
Friday, December 29th, 2006By the time the Ford Administration (discontinued) reached the small town in the Colorado Rockies where I grew up - not Vail, reportedly the President’s favorite resort in the state, but two hours’ drive north-northwest of it - its security detail had shrunk to two, and there were barely enough cabinet men, lackeys and hangers-on in the entourage to complete a foursome.
Recent Scenes from My Near West (iii)
Friday, December 22nd, 2006The last group in this series - see Flickr for captions.
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Tags: Ben Oswest, Colorado, Denver, DIA, E Martin Hennings, Kremmling, Photography, Rabbit Hunt, The Margin, US 40, USA, Yampa Valley
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Recent Scenes from My Near West (ii)
Friday, December 15th, 2006See Flickr for captions.
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Tags: Ben Oswest, Colorado, Colorado Springs, Kremmling, Photography, Rabbit Ears, The Margin, USA, Yampa Valley
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Recent Scenes from My Near West (i)
Friday, December 8th, 2006What is “my near west” - ? It is the transatlantic path that connects London, UK, where I usually first re-enter the “west” when travelling, and Denver, Colorado, USA, where I most often take my leave of it. Here is a series of pics from a recent sojourn there.
All images were taken with a Canon Powershot A80, and put through the open-source app. digiKam’s color balancing (some would say “colorizing”) wringer. They are displayed in sequential order: the first photo is the oldest, the last the latest. Go to Flickr for the captions; this is part one of four.
Tags: Ben Oswest, Colorado, digikam, London, New Mexico, Photographs, Santa Fe, Tent Rocks, The Margin, Tsankawi, United Kingdom, USA
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Boswestblog’s Hiatus Comes to an End
Tuesday, December 5th, 2006My last entry being just over more than two weeks ago, my apologies for the “dead air”. I had a splendid trip to the U.S., and no chance to comment on items post the Collected Works Reading and Signing. But now, Boswestblog is back - I’ll be posting as normal as soon as I can shake off the (absolutely crushing) jet lag.
Meanwhile, I’ve noticed that the interface with Flickr isn’t working at the moment. This is likely a connectivity glitch, not anything serious, and the pics should be back up for viewing soon.
Collected Works Reading and Signing
Saturday, November 18th, 2006Last evening’s reading at the Collected Works bookstore in downtown Santa Fe - complete with South African wine - went very well, with quite a good crowd turning out.
An Evening with Cave Canem in Santa Fe
Friday, November 17th, 2006Santa Fe’s Lannan Foundation - unspoken motto: “watering minds in the high desert” - brought five members of the black poetry collective Cave Canem to the Lensic Theater last evening for an extended reading. The locals (who don’t get too much in-the-flesh exposure to black American culture, one would hazard) were treated to an undrawing of the curtains in one wing of the house, very much under expansion at present, that is African-American literature.
Next Reading: Collected Works, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006The next stop on my grand international tour promoting The New Suffolk Hymnbook is the Collected Works bookstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Come one, come all - books will most certainly be on sale (directly imported from Africa!), and I will most certainly be happy to sign them after the reading.
Baobab Books Reading & Signing
Friday, November 3rd, 2006Henrietta Rose-Innes did me the great favor of introducing The New Suffolk Hymnbook at Julie Aitchison’s fine bookshop on Wednesday evening. She spoke quite eloquently and left me quite flustered; she’s agreed to allow me to publish her notes on Boswestblog - they’ll appear here soon.
Gus Ferguson, Henrietta Rose-Innes and Jeanne Hromnik
The turnout was good, with many friends coming along, and an encouraging number of novels sold and signed. Spotted, inter alia: Mike Cohen, Russel Brownlee, Chris Nicklin, Rodney Trudgeon, Nozuko Mbana, Gus Ferguson and Jeanne Hromnik.
Thanks to all who showed up. Here are a few more snaps (all courtesy my Lovely Assistant):
The Website that Launched Fifty Million Words
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006November, for those who didn’t know, is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo, and the people who are responsible for it have set their followers - a burgeoning band - the goal of cranking out 50 000 words in 30 days.
Which brings to mind Wordworth’s classic anti-verbiage sonnet. To wit:
- “The Novel is Too Much With Us”
The novel is too much with us; late and soon,
Writing and proofing, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in the AlphaSmart that is ours;
Keep reading »
Book Launched: Anatomy of South Africa
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006Political commentator Richard Calland’s new book, Anatomy of South Africa - Who Holds the Power? was launched last night at Relish, a restauraunt-cum-bar which afforded decent wine, tepid hors d’oeuvres, a great view of the sunset over Lion’s Head, and rather cramped quarters for the 100+ crowd that turned out.
Tags: Alison Tilley, Anatomy of South Africa, Cape Town, Collette Hersenberg, Craig Tyson, David Schalkwyk, Gaye Davis, Jean Meeran, Jeremy Boraine, Jeremy Seekings, Judge Siraj Desai, Lala Camerer, Lance Greyling, Mike Wills, Nicoli Nattrass, Nodi Murphy, Non Fiction, Patricia de Lille, Relish, Rheina Epstein, Richard Calland, Shaun Johnson, South Africa, South African Literature, Steve Connolly, Struik, Thabani Maseku, The Margin, Tony Weaver, Zebra, Zunaid Meeran
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Book Launched: Birds in Words
Monday, October 23rd, 2006A pretty book, launched at a pretty venue. Birds Cafe on Bree St. is one of Cape Town’s most popular lunch spots, the apogee of rustic chic in the city. The usual milk crate seats and door-and-sawhorses tables were cleared away for poets on Saturday morning, but the birdsong - supplied by a turntable spinning behind a curtain - twittered right along throughout.
Tags: Annari van der Merwe, Birds, Birds Cafe, Birds in Words, Birdwatching, Brian Warner, Gus Ferguson, Helen Moffett, Henrietta Rose Innes, Ingrid de Kok, Mike Nicol, Peter E Clarke, Poetry, PR Anderson, South African Literature, The Margin, Tony Morphet, Twitchers, Umuzi, Willem Jordaan, William Dicey
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Top Ten Novels 1980-2005, or - My Opinion Solicited
Saturday, October 21st, 2006Holtmann asked, and I’ve sweated bullets to deliver up the goods. In the end, two lists weren’t possible, so the U.S. and the Commonwealth have been united. It’s been horrible, agonizing: one discovers that to list one’s favorite novels of the past quarter century is to condemn oneself twice, as both conventional and poorly-read.
Without further ado, then…
Tags: A Confederacy of Dunces, A Fine Balance, Ackroyd, Amis, Atwood, Bainbridge, Ballard, Banks, Barnes, Barth, Barthelme, Beloved, Burgess, Byatt, Carey, Carver, Coe, Coetzee, Connell, Crace, DeLillo, Didion, Doctorow, Eugenides, Fiction, Ford, Fraser, Gaddis, Gray, Heller, Hopeful Monsters, Irving, Ishiguro, Jin, Killing Mr. Watson, Kincaid, Kundera, Kureishi, Lessing, Mailer, Matthiessen, McCarthy, McEwan, McInerny, McMurtry, Midnights Children, Mistry, Morrison, Mosley, Murdoch, Novels, Oates, Okri, Ondaatjie, Proulx, Pynchon, Roth, Rush, Rushdi, Sabbaths Theater, Seth, Sinclair, Smiley, Smith, Styron, Swift, The Child in Time, The Margin, The Master of Petersburg, The Passion, The Remains of the Day, The Sea The Sea, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Theroux, Toole, Underworld, Updike, Walker, Welsh, Winterson, Wolff
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The New Suffolk Hymnbook Reading & Signing at Baobab Books
Thursday, October 19th, 2006I’ll be giving a reading at Boabab Books in Long Street, Cape Town, on Wed. Nov 1st. Come along - here are the details:
Birds in Words - at Birds
Wednesday, October 11th, 2006Delivered to the inbox a few days ago - should be great fun:
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Umuzi and Clarke’s Bookshop
invite you to celebrate the publication of
Birds in Words
The Twitchers’ Guide to South African Poetry
Coetzee’s Disgrace Singled Out for Honor
Monday, October 9th, 2006Following a New York Times poll that named Toni Morrison’s Beloved
- The Best Commonwealth Novel from 1980 to 2005 (UK Observer).
I personally disagree with both choices - though each book would likely make respective top tens - but, for some reason, my opinion wasn’t solicited.
Against Poets & Writers
Saturday, October 7th, 2006Received in the post this week from one Paula Collins, whose return address is a PO Box in Mount Morris, Illinois (a town west of Chicago on Highway 64 - see map), the following form letter:
Poets and Writers Subscription Letter
Now, there is much that might be said about this letter, starting with its promising salutation (”Dear Writer” - quite heartening to be accepted into the guild upfront), then moving on to its opening gambit, which makes you suspect Ms. Collins spent long years as a guidance counsellor at Mount Morris High before embarking on her current career.
Keep reading »
Books Launched: Night Crossing & Rabble Rouser
Friday, September 29th, 2006Book launch gadflies were offered a tough choice between two luminaries for their evening fluttering tonight: at the Centre for the Book, reknowned Afrikaans poet Petra Müller, who read at the release of her first collection of verse in English, Night Crossing (Tafelberg); and at the V&A Waterfront, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, subject of John Allen’s new biography, the clunkily-titled A Rabble Rouser for Peace (Random House). (Allen was also, incidentally, in attendance.)
If your gadfly timing was good, however, you could have flitted from one event to the other for the best parts of each.
Keep reading »
Tags: A Rabble Rouser for Peace, Alex Boraine, Amanda Botha, Annari van der Merwe, Biography, Cape Town, Centre for the Book, desmond tutu, Dumisa Ntsebeza, Elsa Joubert, Exclusive Books, FW de Klerk, George Ellis, Gus Ferguson, Jeanne Hromnik, Joan Hambridge, John Allen, Justin Fox, Lavinia Crawford Browne, Leopards Leap, Nelleke Jager, Nelson Mandela, Night Crossing, Nobel Square, Peter Storey, Petra Müller, Poetry, Random House, Rowan Smith, South Africa, South African Literature, Stephen Johnson, Tafelberg, The Margin, V&A Waterfront, Van Loveren, Walter Sisulu, Willem Steenkamp
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Owen Sheers Discusses The Dust Diaries at the V&A Waterfront
Friday, September 15th, 2006I missed Owen Sheers’ reading at the Green Man Festival - he was in the “literature tent” on the festival’s Saturday afternoon, while I was out driving through towns with names like Bwlch - but was afforded the opportunity to catch up yesterday evening, when he appeared somewhat miraculously at the Cape Town V&A Waterfront’s Wordsworth Books, to talk about his book, The Dust Diaries.
- Purchase a copy of The Dust Diaries: South Africa | UK | USA
Tags: Abergavenny, Arthur Shearly Cripps, Brecon Beacons, Buckingham Palace, Cape Town, Diary of a Novel, Dorris Lessing, Dutch, Edmund Morris, Great Zimbabwe, Green Man, Keith Douglas, Literature, Owen Sheers, Poetry, Prose, Rhodesia, South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Steinbeck, The Dust Diaries, The Green Man Festival, The Margin, The Tonight Show, V&A Waterfront, Wales, Wordsworth, Zimbabwe
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Black Writers to Mark Golden Jubilee in Paris
Wednesday, September 13th, 2006Of interest to many in Africa will be the events surrounding the 50th Anniversary of the 1st International Conference of Black Writers and Artists, to take place at the Sorbonne in Paris later this month.
Poetry and Music at Launch of My Ousie is ‘n Blom
Friday, September 8th, 2006Snail Press’ latest title, the Afrikaans poetry collection edited by Charl-Pierre Naudé, My Ousie is ‘n Blom, was launched at the Irma Stern Museum last night. A slightly bemused Valiant Swart - a rock artist who rarely, one suspects, plays sedate poetry gigs - and a deadly serious David Ferguson provided musical entertainment (on the acoustic guitar and harmonica/electro-modulator, respectively).
Tags: Afrikaans, Ampie Coetzee, Antjie Krog, Cape Town, Charl Pierre Naudé, Chris Brunette, Cornel Judels, Danie Marais, David Ferguson, Helen Moffett, Ingrid de Kok, Irma Stern Museum, Liesel Kruger, Loftus Marais, Patricia Nolan, Poetry, Ronelda S Kamfer, Snail Press, South Africa, South African Literature, The Margin, Valiant Swart, Yabadaka Shamah
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Book Launch: My Ousie is ‘n Blom
Thursday, August 31st, 2006My Ousie is ‘n Blom, which began life as an issue of Karapaks (an all-Afrikaans Carapace), but grew into a fully-shelled project for Snail Press, will be launched on Thursday, 7 September, at the Irma Stern Museum, Cecil Road, Rosebank (map). Time: 6 - 8 p.m.
The poetry collection includes work by Breyten Breytenbach, Antjie Krog, Alfred Schaffer and Riedwaan Solomons, among many others; and the launch will feature live music by Valiant Swart and David Ferguson.
My Ousie is ‘n Blom was edited by Charl-Pierre Naudé and illustrated by Karlien de Villiers. Please RSVP to Gus Ferguson if you’d like to attend the launch: snaily@pulsar.co.za or (021) 762 3714.
Two Upcoming Wordsworth Events: Finuala Dowling and Marita van der Vyfer
Thursday, August 24th, 2006Coming up from Wordsworth Books…
Author’s choice evening with Finuala Dowling:
- Thursday, 31 August, 18h30 for 19h00
- Wordsworth Books, 1 King’s Warehouse, Victoria Wharf,
V&A Waterfront - Finuala will be discussing her poetry, inspiration and favourite authors and reads.
- Her books, I Flying (available from Clarkes), The Doo-Wop Girls of the Universe and What Poets Need will be on sale at a 20% discount.
- RSVP before Tuesday, 29 August 2006: (021) 425-6880 or waterfront@wordsworth.co.za
Exchange: Green-Eyed Thieves
Sunday, August 13th, 2006Imraan Coovadia wrote the following letter to the Sunday Times, regarding my review of his Green-eyed Thieves. The paper did not publish the letter - it merely printed a correction - so here it is, with my brief response, in full.
Dear Editor:
In his review of my novel, Green-eyed Thieves, published 6 August in the Sunday Times, Ben Oswest twice refers to the brother of the narrator as Ahmed.
Keep reading »
It’s Ashraf, not Ahmed, in Green-Eyed Thieves
Tuesday, August 8th, 2006In my review of Imraan Coovadia’s Green-Eyed Thieves, I gave the name of the main character’s brother as “Ahmed”. In fact - as Coovadia has since pointed out, in a letter to be published in this week’s Sunday Times - the correct name is “Ashraf”.
The error is mine and I regret it. Tune into Boswestblog on Sunday for Coovadia’s letter and my full response. I’ve meanwhile corrected the name in my post of the review:
A Reading at BC 2003
Wednesday, July 26th, 2006BC 2003 is a book club that would find much favor with Emily and Florence of Little Britain, for it is entirely composed of ladies. I was privileged enough to join their beau monde last evening, where a supper of spicy tomato soup was slurped up (delicious, Claudia - thank you), a few pages of The New Suffolk Hymnbook were read, and outrage over the absolutism of “C-Section only” gynaes was expressed.
The club is run like a stokvel: each member contributes R50/month to the pot, and the monthly sum then rotates among them, giving each the chance to buy five or six books she’s had an eye on, and simultaneously build up the club’s library (which travels from meeting to meeting, via car boot, in cardboard boxes). I was happy to see a few new local titles in the mix, including K. Sello Duiker’s The Hidden Star and Coldsleep Lullaby by Andrew Brown. On behalf of writers in South Africa, thanks for the support, BC 2003 - may other clubs follow your lead.
A Note on Last Night’s Movie
Monday, July 24th, 2006It was Leila Khaled Hijacker, a relatively new documentary, and Leila Khaled herself - the “Che Guevara of the Palestinians” - was there for a post-screening discussion. She hijacked one plane in the late-60s, and attempted to hijack another in the early-70s, as a member of the secular Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and was catapulted to fame, aided by her beauty and audacity. Today, she is revered as a hero by millions, especially in the pan-Arab world.
The object of her missions was publicity for the Palestinian cause, which until then, she says in the film, had gone largely ignored in the mainstream media. From that point of view, both operations were a success - unless you take the line, like the Swedish Palestinian filmmaker, that Khaled and her comrades gave the Palestinians a “bad reputation” through their acts. (No one was killed in the PFLP hijackings, the second round of which were coordinated across four filghts, Khaled’s being the only one that didn’t come off; planes were landed in friendly territory, then, after everyone had disembarked, spectacularly blown up.)
Tags: Cape High Court, Cape Town, Dennis Davis, Dennis Goldberg, Dullah Omar, Ebrahim Rasool, Encounters International Documentary Film Festival, Farieda Omar, Israel, Lebanon, Leila Khaled, Long Walk to Freedom, Middle East, Nelson Mandela, Palestine, PFLP, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Siraj Desai, South Africa, Tasneem Essop, The Margin
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New Anthology of Poems Celebrates Madiba
Tuesday, July 18th, 2006On the day of his 88th birthday, a book of poems commemorating Nelson Mandela’s life and times has been launched at London’s South Africa House by Aflame Books.
Tags: Aflame Books, Andrew Motion, Anthologies, Dennis Brutus, Gerrit Fourie, Halala Madiba, Jeremy Cronin, John Matshikiza, Madiba, Mongane Serote, Nelson Mandela, Ntozake Shange, Poetry, Richard Bartlett, Seamus Heaney, South Africa, South Africa House, South African Literature, The Margin, Trafalgar Square, Wole Soyinka
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Denis Hirson to Read at the Labia
Friday, July 14th, 2006South African writer and poet Denis Hirson will read from his 1986 novel, The House Next Door to Africa (David Philip/New Africa Books) at Cape Town’s Labia Theatre on Wednesday, 2 August, at 6 p.m.
Clarke’s Bookshop will be on hand with a selection of Hirson’s books for sale and signing. He is also the author of two memoirs, I Remember King Kong (The Boxer) and We Walk Straight So You Better Get Out the Way (both Jacana titles).
RSVP to Morgan Vesty by 28 July: morgan@newafricabooks.co.za, (021) 674 4136.
From the reviewers:
Nicol and Hichens Book Signing this Saturday
Thursday, July 13th, 2006The Wordsworth Books at the Gardens Centre is hosting Mike Nicol and Joanne Hichens, authors of the Cape Town crime novel Out to Score (Umuzi, 2006), this Saturday at 10 a.m. For more information, phone Wordsworth on (021) 461 8464, alternatively the Centre on (021) 465 1841.
Mary Watson Wins Caine Prize
Wednesday, July 12th, 2006Mary Watson, South African author of Moss, a collection of short stories (Kwela, 2004), has won the prestigious £10,000 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize was awarded for the story “Jungfrau”, the opening piece in Moss.
Andre Brink & Mary Watson at the recent Cape Town Book Fair
Response to “Tongue Tied Literature”
Sunday, July 9th, 2006Today’s Sunday Times ran a brief response to my opinion piece on the South African English literary marketplace. Here’s the link:
- Language tightrope (letter to the editor by Johann Rossouw)
Cape Town Book Fair Coda: Launch of Seasonal Fires
Wednesday, June 21st, 2006Ingrid de Kok’s book Seasonal Fires was launched this evening in Kalk Bay, inside the high-ceilinged bakery of the famed Olympia Cafe, as a kind of coda to the Cape Town Book Fair. The poet Karen Press introduced her: “Ingrid’s gaze is steady but also tender.”
Spotted in the crowd (in no particular order): Jeremy Cronin, John Samuel, Sue Clark, Amina Mama, Dominique le Roux, Mike Cope, Julia Martin, Helen Moffett, Annari van der Merwe, Hugh Hodge, Finuala Dowling, Ignatius Ticha, Tony Morphet, John Higgins, Neville Alexander and Gus Ferguson.
The first poem Ingrid read was in honor of someone absent, Luke Fiske: “When Children Leave” (p. 139).
Karen Press
…at the Olympia Cafe’s bakery, introducing Ingrid de Kok.
Tags: Amina Mama, Annari van der Merwe, Cape Town, Cape Town Book Fair, Cape Town International Book Fair, Dominique le Roux, Finuala Dowling, Gus Ferguson, Helen Moffett, Hugh Hodge, Ignatius Ticha, Ingrid de Kok, Jeremy Cronin, John Higgins, John Samuel, Julia Martin, Karen Press, Luke Fiske, Mike Cope, Neville Alexander, Poetry, Seasonal Fires, South African Literature, Sue Clark, The Margin, Tony Morphet, Umuzi
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Cape Town Book Fair: Photos from Day Four
Tuesday, June 20th, 2006It’s the fourth and final day of the Cape Town Book Fair - but you wouldn’t know it upon first sight of the teeming masses inside the CTICC. (The fact that parking’s easier to find is a better clue.) As usual, I wandered into the melee - and there are five or six new photographs in the Cape Town Book Fair Photo Set as a result, including this fine shot of Ben Trovato’s hand. Elusive chap, Ben Trovato. I highly recommend his first book, The Ben Trovato Files, as one of South Africa’s best tomes of blistering satire.
Launch of The New Suffolk Hymnbook: Photo Gallery
Tuesday, June 20th, 2006I’ve posted pics from last night’s launch - see the Cape Town Book Fair Photo Set. It was a splendid occasion, with a very funny speech from Gus Ferguson, a very formidable explication of my convoluted writing from Ingrid de Kok (which she’s been gracious enough to agree to let me post, later this week), and a short reading from myself, from the novel’s chapter five, “Piety” (pp. 119-121).
Many books were sold, and signed - a good start. Thanks very much to organizers Caroline and team (of Jacana Media), and to all who came, I was thrilled that the evening went so well.
With Di Oliver, Gus Ferguson and Mary Burton
Cape Town Book Fair Photos: Day Three
Monday, June 19th, 2006A few shots from day three at the Book Fair - still going strong - are up, including this one, which I couldn’t resist taking, because of the subject’s choice of boots.
You need tough boots, of course, if you’re going to write a book about Brett Kebble, the murdered mining “magnate”, and general all-round fraud. The conspiracy theories that Barry Sergeant elaborates in his Brett Kebble: The Inside Story aren’t dismissible with a mocking laugh and wink. Kebble was up to his thick neck in manure, and troweled out plenty of the same substance himself before he was shot, in his E-Class Mercedes Benz, on an isolated stretch of Johannesburg highway late last year.
The New Suffolk Hymnbook Launched Tonight
Monday, June 19th, 2006My first novel, The New Suffolk Hymnbook (Jacana Media & Snail Press) will be launched this evening at the Cape Town Book Fair, CTICC.
- Time: 5h30 for 6 p.m.
- Venue: Sontonga room (at the far end of the CTICC, nearest the Arabella hotel)
- Guest speaker: the poet Ingrid de Kok
The book’s price is R135; it will be available in South African bookstores and via online retailers within the next few weeks. Credit cards will be accepted at the launch.
Mandela’s Ego Launch, M Bar, Cape Town
Monday, June 19th, 2006Last night saw the launch of Lewis Nkosi’s new novel, Mandela’s Ego, at the Metropole Hotel’s M Bar in Long Street, Cape Town. I introduced Lewis and his wonderful book, which is, as I said, a “serious satire”, locked in contest with the monumental founding narrative of the new South Africa, Nelson Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom, for the territory of the South African imagination.
I’ll post a full review of Mandela’s Ego in the next few days (and possibly some further speech notes). Meanwhile, I’ve put up a few launch photos on Flickr. See them in the Cape Town Book Fair Photo Set.
New Cape Town Book Fair Pictures
Sunday, June 18th, 2006I’ve posted a few new pictures from the Cape Town Book Fair, Day 2; have a look:
- Cape Town Book Fair Photos (Flickr set)
Here are Fred Khumalo, opinion editor at the Sunday Times - and author of Touch My Blood and Bitches Brew - and his wife Nomvuso:
Cape Town Book Fair: Michelle Magwood Interviews Richard E. Grant
Sunday, June 18th, 2006In the heart of the maelstrom that is the Cape Town Book Fair, Sunday Times books editor Michelle Magwood sat down with Richard E. Grant to add to the noise. Her interview, however, was anything but noisesome. Grant is a formidable, if gracious, interlocutor - many would have shrunk under his glittering gaze. But Magwood was more than equal to the task, peppering the actor with incisive questions, to which he was obliged to supply thoughtful, genuine responses. The salon-style affair was organised in aid of promoting Grant’s book, The Wah-Wah Diaries, which is the story of the making of an autobiographical film of the same name.
We in the audience - who literally sat at Grant’s feet - learned quite a bit about the swashbucklingly candid actor, who was born in Swaziland - including the fact that Robert Altman is his favorite director; that an unnamed French women is his most-reviled producer, reserved for high execration; that a Swazi priest named Bheki, who had received evangelical training in the USA, leapt into his (Grant’s) father’s grave as he was being buried, removed the coffin’s cover, and attempted to raise the corpse from the dead - a scene that didn’t make the movie’s final edit, but will appear, apparently, in the dvd extras; that Gayle Immelman was the first girl who, at twelve, Grant seriously kissed (she was in the audience); and that Michelle Magwood is forty-six years old (information prised from the interviewer in one of those table-turning moments that gives everyone a thrill).
REG, as Grant is known (both to himself and throughout his book), is making a new film, called Zeitgeist - his discription of it made it sound like Noises Off combined with a space-disaster-follies flick - always wears two watches - one perpetually set to Swazi time - and never fails to thank a person who takes an interest for noticing him. At the Cape Town Book Fair, he’s hard to miss.
Richard E Grant & Michelle Magwood
Cameron, Levin and Brown Win the Sunday Times Book Awards
Sunday, June 18th, 2006South Africa is known as a land of compromises - and last night the judges of the Sunday Times Book Awards did the country’s reputation awkward justice, by failing to pick a clear winner in the non-fiction category. Edwin Cameron and Adam Levin shared the spoils, for their books Witness to AIDS and AidSafari, respectively.
The fiction award went to Andrew Brown, for his Coldsleep Lullaby. I haven’t yet read any of the winners - had had high hopes, in fact, for Russel Brownlee’s novel, Garden of the Plagues, in the fiction category.
I confess to being irked at hung juries, because a jury that can’t make up its mind is ultimately a selfish one - it wants to draw attention to itself. I’m probably not half so irked, however, as Cameron and Levin, who are now each possessed of half an award, and burdened by the necessity of being gracious to each other in public. This is not to say that they were not fast friends to begin with, just that it’s unpleasant to share the limelight, and to know that it was a genre - reportage from the HIV/AIDS front - more than any particular effort of theirs, that got the prize.
- Official coverage: Sunday Times | Sunday Times Book Awards
Edwin Cameron
…at the Cape Town Book Fair.
Cape Town Book Fair: First Day
Saturday, June 17th, 2006The Cape Town Book Fair - as anyone who vistited it today will agree - is already a ravishing success, at just one day old. By 11am, the CTICC had resorted to overflow parking - I found space only several minutes’ walk away from the complex - and nearly every Book Fair event has been oversubscribed, judging by anecdotal evidence.
My first day: a marvellous, moving poetry reading with Ingrid de Kok, Antjie Krog and Jeremy Cronin (moderated by Gus Ferguson); many visits to the splendid Jacana booth, where The New Suffolk Hymnbook is being released; a seminar on the universe of online book information with Google; and much hobnobbing besides.
I’ve posted a first-day photo gallery on Flickr; here’s the link: Cape Town Book Fair Photos. This shot of Alexander McCall Smith and a happy reader is fairly representative:
Alexander McCall Smith
…signing books at the Cape Town Book Fair
- To borrow from the signage of Johnny Carson, more to come…
Cape Town Book Fair: Festival “Fringe” at Baobab Books
Thursday, June 15th, 2006Julie Aitchison, proprietor of Baobab Books in Long Street, has organised a “fringe” evening for the Cape Town Book Fair, on Saturday 17 June.
(That’s the night of the Sunday Times Book Awards banquet - if you don’t have an invitation, Baobab makes a good alternative.)
Signed copies of various Book Fair books will be on sale in her shop, and the following events have been confirmed:
- 6.30 pm CHRIS MANN: Lifelines, a multi-media presentation of art, graphics, poetry and sung lyrics by the “ad hominem” Professor of Poetry at Rhodes University. (Lifelines’ graphics and scientific commentary by Julia Skeen and Adrian Craig, respectively.)
- 7.45 pm DENNIS BRUTUS: the renowned poet and activist, who is visiting Cape Town for the Book Fair, will launch and discuss the new book about him, Poetry and Protest, edited by Lee Sustar and Aisha Karim.
Julie will lay on complimentary wine for both events, and there will also be a cash bar. She may sponsor another “fringe” event for the next evening, too.
Baobab Books
Baobab Mall
210 Long Street (opp. The Dubliner at Kennedy’s) | Map
+27 (0) 21 422 3894
Mandela’s Ego - Cape Town Book Fair Launch
Saturday, June 10th, 2006
I’ll be speaking at the launch of Lewis Nkosi’s novel, Mandela’s Ego, on the Sunday evening of the Cape Town Book Fair (18 June).
Cape Town Book Fair: Links
Monday, May 29th, 2006A few links for the Cape Town Book Fair, where The New Suffolk Hymnbook will be launched:
- Homepage: Cape Town Book Fair
- Programme: Cape Town Book Fair
- Venue: Cape Town Convention Centre
- Find your way to the Convention Centre: Directions
- Convention Centre’s contextual street map: Coen Steytler Rd. (between Long St. & Heerengracht Rd., Foreshore, Cape Town)
The Laddy Jones Story Part One
Saturday, May 27th, 2006This story has now been posted: The Laddy Jones Story Part One.
Feel free to use this entry for any comments.
- b.
The New Suffolk Hymnbook: Launch Date & Time
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006The New Suffolk Hymnbook will be launched at the Cape Town International Book Fair, CTICC, on Monday, 19 June, 5h30 for 6pm.
Maggie Davey (Jacana), Gus Ferguson (Snail Press) and Ingrid de Kok will be speaking at the launch.
All welcome - please rsvp to caroline@jacana.co.za if you’d like to attend.
Any schedule changes will be noted in this post - check back from time to time.
- b.
The New Suffolk Hymnbook - Chapter One
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006“Jonah”, the first chapter of my first novel, has now been posted: The New Suffolk Hymnbook.
Feel free to use this entry for comments. (Click here.)
-b.
