I’m not sure how many more stories about my life, largely but not entirely in South Africa, I can dredge up from the filing cabinet of my mind. So, I thought I’d go in a different direction this time. I have probably mentioned my cousin Vera Atkins before, but the other day I was glancing […]
Once again, I must emphasize that I’m not a great student of politics and my comments are purely based on my own observations of what was happening to the country I had always loved since I first arrived there at the age of ten. When South Africa finally achieved a democratic government in 1994, South […]
There is something that has puzzled me for many years. It is the way in which we who have had the “privilege” of being born in the Western world have aggressively exported our expertise, technology, and management skills to developing nations. Sadly, along with this priceless information, comes the whole baggage of the ills of […]
For some strange reason it seems to be a “passing on” season. ExoTeamer Number Two Alan Douglas has been well and truly validated by the entire ExoBrain team, and then a lifelong friend in South Africa, Victor Lidchi, who some of you may know, passed after a battle with poor health for many years. We […]
In early 2013, while still in Johannesburg, I was contacted by Harry Lyons the author of the definitive book on my ancestor Dr. Christopher Dresser, The People’s Designer. As the head of the Dresser family that originated in England in 1352 with the arrival of Christopher Dresser, a Danish sea captain, Harry invited me to […]
Obituary As one grows older, it’s fact of life that more and more of one’s friends and relatives succumb to death. I read about old school friends or people I have met from later periods in my life who have passed away. However, when a current close friend, a person I would normally see a […]
Yesterday, Hero and I celebrated our 56th Anniversary and it just so happened that it was also Mother’s day in the UK, so my beloved wife enjoyed a double whammy! We celebrated, within our extended bubbles, of course, lunch with our good friends Gisela and Karl-Heinz Guenter Vogel and dinner with another lovely friend Hannah […]
How did I learn how to write feature screenplays? Living in South Africa in the 1970s, apart from books on the subject, there was virtually no one in the country who I could look to as a successful international screenwriter. There was a political decision by the Apartheid regime to not allow television broadcasts until […]
In 1945, John Steinbeck wrote one of his best-known novels, Cannery Row, which was set in and around a street in Monterey, California. The cold but nutrient-rich waters, with abundant plankton along the California coast, attracted millions of pilchards (a larger form of sardine), and a huge fishing industry flourished. Anyway, in the mid-1940s, due […]
Why did I decide to write a separate blog for my last visit to France? For two reasons: firstly, there wasn’t enough space on the previous blog, but more importantly, because visiting Cannes for the Film Festival was like a visit to the United States superimposed over this delightful French city. Fortunately, little pieces of […]