Articles

EXACTLY a year ago, two guests arrived at my door: a friend and his actor daughter. As dinner ended she said she couldn’t go to bed immediately: she needed another run-through of the show she was taking to Grahamstown’s National Arts Festival. Would she like an...

IF you search the Web for ‘Natasha Chang’ you can take your pick. There’s a rather gorgeous top Caribbean motorsport driver, who describes herself as ‘a young, petite woman driving a big boy’s car and having some fun’. She suggests that if you want to excel in racing...

THE judge’s introductory remarks make me want to curl up in a comfy chair and read on: ‘The facts of this matter disclose a sorry tale of mishap, maladministration and at least two failures of moral courage.’ Sjoe! It sounds hot, and the contents of the judgment don’t...

DON’T try quoting the Bible’s most virulent anti-homosexual fulminations in Canada to justify an anti-gay attack. The highest court in that country has recently upheld a human rights commission decision declaring such rants amount to hate speech. The man responsible...

Smithfield begin eie kunstefees Toetslopie vir akteurs op pad na Grahamstad ELRETHA BRITZ Maandag 06 Mei 2013 David Butler is Bram Fischer in The Bram Fischer Waltz   OP Smithfield ontspring vanjaar ’n kunstefees uit vertonings en akteurs wat op pad na die...

Shotgun Tori aka Victoria Landey, drove through Smithfield recently on her way back from a gig in Aliwal North. She wanted a slot in our Platteland Preview festival, taking place in Smithfield June 21 – 23, and so we said: let’s hear you sing. And so she sang! We were...

A recent cold front passing over Smithfield showed itself in a dramatic sky; almost as though the cold had a colour and a shape:      

If you can’t go to Grahamstown this year for the National Arts Festival fringe, don’t worry – – – the fringe is coming to you! That’s the thinking behind our dorp’s new venture. We’re hosting a Platteland Preview of Grahamstown’s internationally respected fringe,...

WHEN criminal trials come unstuck because of technical failures by the prosecution, the public ought to worry. This week I was very worried indeed: two cases in completely different jurisdictions showed evidence of hopeless mistakes by the prosecution over such...

TWO experiences in our tiny platteland dorp today set me up for the judgment I’ve just read. We were running in the veld, the two dogs and I, when suddenly they stopped, alert, watching a cow and her still wet, new-born calf lying on the grass. The mother stepped...