Anne Skyvington
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Anne Skyvington

The Craft of Writing

  • Writing
    • Craft
      • Structuring a Short Story
      • Alternative Narrative Approaches
      • Genre in Writing
      • A Grain of Folly
        • Novel Writing
          • The Sea Voyage: a metaphor
          • How I Created My Debut Novel
          • What I learnt from writing a novel…
          • Short Story
            • At the Swimming Pool
            • The Night of the Barricades
          • Poetry
            • a funny thing happened …
            • An ancient mystic: Rumi
            • A Window into Poetry
            • The Voice of T.S. Eliot
  • Publishing
    • A Change of Blog Title
    • 5 Further Publishing Facts
    • 5 Facts I Learnt About Self/Publishing
    • Highs and Lows of Self Publishing
    • A Perfect Pitch to a Publisher
    • A Useful Site for Readers and Indie Authors: Books 2 Read
  • Book Reviews
    • A Story of a Special Child
    • Discovering Karrana
    • A Young Adult Novel: My French Barrette
    • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills
    • The Trouble With Flying: A Review
  • Mythos
    • Ancient Stories from Childhood
    • Births Deaths and Marriages
    • Duality or Onenness: The Moon
    • The Myth of Persephone and Demeter
    • Pandora’s Box
    • 7 ancient artefacts in the British Museum
    • Symbolism of Twins
    • The Agony and the Ecstasy of Change
    • Voices From the Past
  • Australia
    • A Country College Residence
    • A Kit Home Goes Up in Vacy
    • A Sydney Icon or Two
    • 5 things about Coogee
    • Moree and Insistent Voices
    • Things To Do in Sydney
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    • A Bird’s Eye View
    • A Tuscan Village Holiday
    • Back to Cavtat in Croatia
    • Travel to Croatia
    • 5 or 6 Things About Valencia
  • Guest Post
    • a father’s tale … by Ian (Harry) Wells
    • A Guest Poem: “First Loves” by Roger Britton
    • A Love Sonnet by Ian Harry Wells
    • “Snakey” by Roger Britton
    • Randwick Writers’ Group: Sharing Writing Skills
    • A Story of a Genteel Ghost told by Roger Britton
  • Psychology
    • Creativity and Mental Illness
    • Networking and Emotional Intelligence
    • C.G.Jung’s Active Imagination and the Dead
    • Psychology as a Field of Study
    • Western Influencers Down Through The Ages
  • Life Stories
    • Adriatic Romance … Rijeka to Titograd
    • Always something there to remind me…
    • A Well-Loved Pet
    • Candidly Yours…
    • Memoir Writing
    • River Girl: An Early Chapter of my Memoir in Progress
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a memoir set in the eastern cape province of south africa

south-african-landscape
Guest PostWriting

Visions of South Africa: a creative couple from South Africa

Garth Alperstein was born in South Africa. As well as having spent a career as a paediatrican, he has worked with indigenous Australians in the outback. And in recent times, Garth has published a memoir, The Fourpenny Axe and a Snooker Cue: eBofolo remembered with Ginninderra Press, based on his memories of his childhood spent in Fort Beaufort, in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province.

eBofolo is the Xhosa name for the village Fort Beaufort in the Cape Province of South Africa where he grew up. Although he initially started writing this story as a memoir, he became interested in its history as a context within which to place the memoir. The story extends back some thousands of years and finishes with his most recent visit to the town in January 2010. Interspersed within the memoir are a few small windows into the past through fictionalised stories of the San, the Khoikhoi, the Xhosa who all inhabited the Fort Beaufort district prior to the arrival of the Europeans. Although the San, Khoikhoi, Xhosa and early European stories are fictitious, they are based on historical and anthropological writings.

the-cover

The cover of Garth’s book

This is a story full of humour and pathos about growing up in a small town in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, during the Apartheid years. The author is the oldest son of the town’s mayor, a publican. He grew up between the hotel, where he was exposed at an early age to the town’s racism, and a harsh boarding school experience.

The voice mimics the simple language of the cronies at the bar, where he served drinks to his father’s customers in his holidays from the tender age of twelve. But the stories, some of them amusing or poignant and always fantastic, are not told with nostalgia for the past.

As he pieces together his own story, he sees that it is a tiny fragment of a much larger picture.

There is a secondary storyline, told in small vivid vignettes, which run through the memoir as historical threads, some of them told in poetic language, focusing on ancient tribes with sensitivity and passion.

 

 Melissa Becker is a South African born painter and printmaker. She emigrated to the U.S.A in 1976 with her partner and studied Fine Arts in New York City where she lived and exhibited for 11 years.  She has been based in Sydney, Australia since 1990. The past is ever present in her work which reflects a multitude of interests and influences. The politics of gender, race and art are never far from the surface though they may be camouflaged by a devotion to aesthetics and subtle humour.

south-african-painting

 She is married to Garth Alperstein and they have two grown up sons and live in the eastern suburb of Sydney.

Visions of South Africa: a creative couple from South Africa was last modified: October 10th, 2017 by Anne Skyvington
August 31, 2015 1 comment
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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington

Anne Skyvington is a writer based in Sydney who has been practising and teaching creative writing skills for many years. You can learn here about structuring a short story and how to go about creating a longer work, such as a novel or a memoir. Subscribe to this blog and receive a monthly newsletter on creative writing topics and events.

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In Australia you can purchase the book from Harry Hartog in Bondi Junction, from Amazon Australia and bookshops linked to IngramSpark

 

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About The Author

About The Author

Anne Skyvington is a Sydney-based writer and blogger. <a href="http://anneskyvington.com.au She has self-published a novel, 'Karrana' and is currently writing a creative memoir based on her life and childhood with a spiritual/mystical dimension.

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