Philip Spires commonplace book

I have kept a commonplace book for many years. It's a place where scraps of impressions are filed for future reflection. It's not a diary, it's just a mental scrapbook, concentrating on book reviews, concert reviews, visual arts and some occasional pieces on travel. It is also a place where I occasionally reflect on what I write. Details of my books can be found at http://www.philipspires.co.uk

Showing posts with label south africa. Show all posts

Sunday, July 5, 2020

The Wall of the Plague by Andre Brink

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A t the heart of the book is an obvious but tenuous parallel. Andrea Malgas is an attractive – even stunning – coloured woman from South ...

Saturday, July 4, 2020

Imaginings of Sand by André Brink - masterpiece

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Imaginings of Sand by André Brink is, simply put, a masterpiece. Not only does it bring convincing characters to life, flesh out the histor...

Friday, January 15, 2016

The Story Of An African Farm by Olive Schreiner

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Reading takes you there, sometimes even to places where you, the reader, may not want to go. Someone else, someone we have never met, did th...

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Joseph Hanlon, Mozambique: The Revolution Under Fire.

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Why might anyone want to read a book describing contemporary politics and international relations some thirty years after its publication? S...

Friday, March 4, 2011

None To Accompany Me by Nadine Gordimer

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Life often presents an illusion of constancy or even continuity. They are illusions, of course, because ultimately we can never take anythin...

Friday, August 27, 2010

The Steps Of The Sun by Caroline Harvey, aka Joanna Trollope

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I approached The Steps Of The Sun not knowing what to expect. Its author was listed as Joanna Trollope writing as Caroline Harvey. I had pre...

Monday, January 4, 2010

Perilous transition – Imaginings Of Sand by André Brink

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Imaginings Of Sand by André Brink was a second novel I recently encountered where an old woman, close to death, related a life story. The bo...

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

July’s People by Nadine Gordimer

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In July’s People Nadine Gordimer presents a scenario laden with fears. Written in 1981, the book presents a South Africa afflicted by near-w...

Sunday, September 23, 2007

A review of Mukiwa by Peter Godwin

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Peter Godwin certainly has a story to tell. It’s a story of an idyllic, if unusual childhood, a disrupted but eventually immensely successfu...

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About Me

philipspires: I was born in Wakefield and was brought up in Sharslton, a mining Village. I went to London University and then became a maths teacher, working initially as a volunteer teacher in Kenya. I spent sixteen years in London, in Balham and Islington. In 1992, I left Britain for Brunei and then Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. I currently live in La Nucia, near Benidorm in Spain. I am interested in the relationship between nature and nurture, birthright and experience. Themes of culture and identity and their relation to economic and social roles underpin my writing. What we are born into relates to what we become, but we are rarely in control. What others do, our interests and intellects and the way we choose to earn a living, all of these shape us into what we become. It may be that culture is the sum of all assumptions that others make on our behalf, whereas identity represents our reactions to them. I did a PhD on the effects of education in economic development in the Philippines. I was President of Alfas del Pi Music Society for twelve years.

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