Every once in a while, I sit down and take stock of what I’m doing and where I’m going. It’s vitally important to set goals in life and, as one grows older, it’s sometimes hard to keep focused on the way forward. I am determined to achieve a number of key objectives before this old […]
I imagine that there have been all kinds of methods used in the process of employing a person to work for one. I doubt if there have been many more bizarre than that used by a well-established South African film director and producer in the 1960s and ‘70s. In 1969, having recently left the relative […]
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German colony of Tanganyika (now Tanzania) was bitterly divided. The colony’s Governor Schnee held the opinion that, as a tiny country surrounded by British possessions, there was no hope of resistance and that they should declare themselves neutral for the duration of the war. However, […]
Just so you know, technophobia has not gotten the best of me by any means. If truth be told, I’ve taken a win every time I beat a technological beast and sat back on my laurels knowing that, against all odds, I triumphed. Those indeed were moments of great pleasure for me. I’m truly quite […]
How do new technologies evolve? Looking back at the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, we see an incredible period in Man’s recorded history in respect of new technologies. Driven by an almost insatiable desire to speed up our lives, the Industrial Revolution of the 1800s gave birth to endless ways of increasing production. Basic to this […]
As I scan through the many adventures I’ve experienced during my life, I find it interesting that my mind seems to come back to my times in Namibia more than most other areas. Apart from making the One Track Mind documentary on the desert itself, we were also commissioned to make a film on the […]
Last time I wrote, I told you the story of John Goodman Household and his remarkable glider flight in 1876, against all odds. In this blog, thought I should share how I came to know Household’s story. A South African film producer asked me if I would write a screenplay on Household becoming arguably the […]
Let me tell you a triumphant and tragic story of John Goodman Household, born in England in the mid-1800s and who travelled to South Africa with his parents as a child. His parents were farmers. They settled in the Karkloof area of the Natal Midlands, some eighty miles from Durban. John had an idyllic childhood, […]
As the Silly Season fast approaches, our thoughts turn to more traditional activities. The mix of ancient pagan rituals and Christian tradition has for many years been the established way of celebrating a few days of family togetherness, and the giving of gifts. In a similar time frame, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah also emphasizes […]
There are so many different areas of life that have changed radically over the decades. One area that I can clearly recall from the 1950s is security. When I returned to Britain after leaving school in South Africa and spending a year in Namibia, I worked my passage on a Swiss cargo ship called the […]