Red carpet exclusive: The South African chatted to veteran actress Alice Krige at the UK premiere of her new movie, ‘She Will’, at the London Film Festival.

Madeira is a COVID green country…So why not head to the diverse and quirky island with its seemingly eternal summer climate?

There’s an oasis just 25km south of Colesberg, coming north on the N1 from the coast, where the Karoo is flat flat flat. It’s called Quaggasfontein.

Mauritius stands out, all on its own in the Indian Ocean, right of Madagascar, a whisker inside the Tropic of Capricorn, 1500 miles from Africa with Seychelles to the north and the Antarctic below. It’s probably South Africans’ most popular holiday island, understandably.

It’s rare to see a post-apartheid piece of theatre much in London.

South African director Gavin Hood is at the London Film Festival with his latest film, Official Secrets, a $12mil budget sharp political thriller starring Keira Knightley.

Moffie, Oliver Hermanus’ study of closeted homosexuality in the apartheid era South African army has been raising ripples around the festival circuit.

Like buses, you wait for a good, controversial film to come out of South Africa and then suddenly two arrive.

To be honest, I didn’t know where Bratislava was until I went there.

There’s a word that is used to describe Amsterdam, gesellig from the German meaning ‘sociable’.

Athol Fugard plays in London are like buses. You wait years for one and then two arrive.

It’s been 35 years since Athol Fugard’s A Lesson From Aloes was staged in London.

Namibia is almost two countries, with the capital, Windhoek, more or less dividing the country in half.

Before I write a word about this book I have to admit that I am a Deon Meyer freak – I’ll read anything of his in any language or any form and will love it.

Somewhere, in small print, we’d been told Oman was ‘dry’ apart from five-star hotels but we hadn’t taken it seriously.

Get there if you can.

The award-winning South African film director Sara Blecher is in London for the London Film Festival premiere of her new film, Mayfair.

The programme for the 62nd BFI London Film Festival has been announced. As always it is pure film magic.

Rügen is Germany’s most north and largest island and is known for its white beaches and chalk cliffs.

The story of the reclusive artist Helen Martins and shepherd Koos Malgas and how they created the extraordinary environmental Owl House in the middle of the Karoo is one of those fascinating urban myths that is actually real.

A perfect summer read.

Wilbur Smith has written 41 best-selling novels which have been translated into 26 languages and sold over 130 million copies worldwide. Every airport has a shelf laden with Wilbur Smiths and it’d be hard to find a South African who hasn’t read one yet.

Since 1985 satirist Pieter-Dirk Uys has performed in London (mainly at the Tricycle Theatre, sometimes at the old Donmar Warehouse and now at the Soho Theatre) around twenty times with his one-man shows; sometimes with his plays.

Nowadays, Malawian comedian Daliso Chaponda performs across the world but it wasn’t always like that.

When I went to get a visa to visit in London, they asked me why I wanted to go. Why would a white lady of uncertain years WANT to go there alone?