Foodie travel article: Weekend Argus, Travel supplement, 30 September 2007 The most memorable meal I had in France was one that we cooked from ingredients we gathered at the local market in St Menehould – a cassoulet made with the Champagne area’s famous Puy lentils, fresh leeks and tomatoes, and homemade parsley and pork sausages, washed down with Valmy, a fruity beer from the farm down the road. Ah, happy days. But luckily I don’t...

(Book design article: Design Indaba, 4th Quarter 2006) It may not be wise to judge a book by its cover, but we do. And if you’re browsing in one of South Africa’s bigger book stores, which stocks at least 30 000 individual titles, all roughly the same size and shape, a book’s cover can seem, well, all-important. Imagine a packed stadium full of teenage girls, each trying to get the attention of Robbie Williams. The competition...

Women in publishing article: Mail & Guardian, 21 April 2006 Half the titles on the Homebru list are by women. But, asks Michelle Matthews, what more can be done to make women’s voices heard? In a recent newspaper article, novelist Ian McEwan proclaimed: “When women stop reading, the novel will be dead.” He and his son had sorted through the McEwan bookshelves and found a number of duplicates of classic books. They gave away 30...

Women in publishing article: Mail & Guardian, 15 October 2004 “Sometimes you go into a bookshop and you see a shelf set aside just for women writers.” Sindiwe Magona is speaking at the launch of a book of essays on her work, collected by Siphokazi Koyana. The crowd of about 40 people is a mixture of academia, government and family; and a young Japanese man who has read Magona’s work in translation, a representative from O...

Foody art article: Mail & Guardian, 23 March 2001 People mill about the juicy cornucopia that spills from the small gallery into the street. Some stand, briefly, brows slightly furrowed, before moving to the wine table. Others lean forward, pointing out details to companions. Someone reaches out, plucks a grape from the display, and pops it into their mouth. “I didn’t expect people to eat it,” says Paco Rodrigues of his...

Fine art article: Mail & Guardian, 24 October 2000 It is tempting to use the cliché “cutting edge”, but surgery as art is at least a decade old. French artist Orlan is its most famous proponent, having undergone 10 cosmetic operations in her expression of carnal art. In her latest she has created “the largest nose technically possible and ethically acceptable”, thumbing her now prodigious proboscis at the millions of women who have...