Category: Essays

Some decades ago, an ethologist, Robert Ardrey, gained much exposure with the idea of the “territorial imperative”.  His study of animal behaviour led him to the conclusion that the strongest drive in the beast was

Some people I know, when relating their or their family’s medical problems describe them as being very rare, something seldom found in the textbooks, a rather special case.  Having observed how much better they are

When I was ten years old my mother and father travelled overseas for  a month and left my older sister, brother and me in the care of a lady who, being what seemed a great

You bear a name from birth, not to distinguish you from the 9,579 other Donovans but to identify you as a person whom can be addressed and, unless one of those other 9,579 other Donovans

When I was small, I remember my older brother, seven years my senior, excitedly telling my father that Mercedes Benz spent an enormous amount of money perfecting the sound of the car door’s closing.  Smooth,

(Warning: this is not a movie review but a personal response.  It will contain spoilers so do not read if in mind to watch Conclave) “Unpersuasive” was the word used by a critic of Conclave.

There are people with severe disabilities who have a desire to enjoy an experience far beyond what their physical condition would allow them.  Reach for a Dream is an organisation which assists in their flying

At the Treaty of Vereeniging, where the English and the Boers met to negotiate an end to the South African War (formerly known as the Anglo-Boer War), the Boers had the last laugh.  While some

I have a friend who refuses to attend funerals – not even his own as there won’t be one. ”Nor for my wife, for that matter,” he added.  “We know we are going to die

“Synecdoche,” our teacher said, “is part for the whole or whole for the part,” a statement as incomprehensible to teenage ears as was the word itself.  “England beat South Africa,” came his follow-up, “that’s whole