When I was still working in the local South African film industry, probably in the 1980s, I met Diana Ginsberg and Lionel Friedberg. Lionel was an up-and-coming cinematographer in the local industry and Diana was a really creative film editor. They later married and went to Los Angeles where they both carved out successful careers […]
After leaving school in 1954 and travelling 2,500 miles by train from outside Durban on the East Coast to the West Coast of Southern Africa, I arrived in Walvis Bay in Namibia. Walvis Bay has had a curious history. It was first visited by the Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Dias in 1487 on his expedition to […]
I have briefly mentioned the Kingdom of Lesotho in an earlier blog. Let me start with the story of my first, rather bizarre trip in the 1960s to the beautiful mountainous enclave, completely surrounded by South Africa. It is, in fact, the only independent state in the world that is entirely 3,281 feet above sea […]
I’ve mentioned my dad quite often in my blogs, but not in great detail. I’ve just spent a few days recently considering what kind of a person he was – in particular, what kind of a father was he to me. I’ll start with his family background which greatly influenced his life, especially as a […]
In 1982, on a bus trip between Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles (three days and three nights), I got talking to one of the drivers, an African American. We discussed sport, mostly rugby versus American football. Then he said, “Guess who I think is the greatest athlete in the world today?” Bearing in mind that […]
Harry worked on the gold mines in South Africa all his life. He had three children and a loving wife; they lived in the unfashionable suburb of Rosettenville in Johannesburg. Despite his modest income, he somehow managed to send his two sons to St. John’s College, one of the top five private schools in South […]
I’ve written about my wife, Hero,and her interesting family before. This time I want to focus on how, even now, she confronts and handles tough situations. Hero is an ordained church minister and has performed countless weddings, funerals and naming ceremonies over the years. Many of the wedding ceremonies have been non-denominational or for couples […]
I had a very unexpected emotional experience last night. In June, as I have mentioned, my wife Hero and I moved from West Sussex to a large retirement complex on the outskirts of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire. We had mixed feelings about moving into a place where the youngest age permitted to live here is […]
Having extolled the virtues of some successful men and women I have known, I thought it might be fun, in contrast, to recall a couple of moments in my life that resulted in uproarious, deep belly laughs. Verbal humor can be funny if cleverly conceived, but often enough it can be silly. I confess to […]
I had intended to include two ladies in my previous blog but the boundless activities of Prue Leith escaped onto the pages and I decided to cut the blog into two. In about 1961, I ended up stage managing two plays in Durban after having failed to secure the job of 2nd Unit Director for […]