I taught English Higher in Paarl for two years before coming to England. I lived and taught in London in a comprehensive boys school for five years. After my son was born, we moved to Devon. At the moment I teach 14-16 year olds English, 17-18 year olds Communication Studies and Psychology.

I hope to meet and talk to writers who are exploring their experiences of a new South Africa, with the intention of finding some texts that I could bring back to my classroom to give Devon pupils an insight into a world outside their own. I would like to be able to record/video writers and poets reading their own work to increase their understanding and appreciation of South Africa writing.

Impressions of Cape Town

Today we filmed Tatumkhulu Afrika in District Six, reading his poetry and talking of his memories. We heard of the lives and homes destroyed, of the knocks in the middle of the night when families were forcibly removed and of the loss of a thriving, vibrant community. We saw the one remaining palm tree, the mosques and the building rubble covered in waving grass.

I felt the overwhelming sense of loss and displacement later. We found an area where people had come to pay homage to their former place: a palm tree sculpted into a pineapple with broken glass scattered at its base, neatly enclosed with breaks; stone circles; a mandela of hands painted on a wall; a dead tree covered in black plastic bows.