Rory Riordan
Rory Riordan lives in Schoenmakerskop, a little seaside village just outside Port Elizabeth, with his wife Melissa and their two children.
His book, Apartheid's Stalingrad, the story of township revolt against apartheid, particularly in the townships of Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage in the 1980s, was published by Jacana.
He studied philosophy at Rhodes University, and in later life has had two spells as a city councillor, firstly for six years heading the finance committee of the erstwhile Port Elizabeth Transitional Council from 1994, and secondly for six years from 2015, the first two of which he was also heading up finance, this time for the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality.
His first wife, Zoe, lives in Somerset West, and their three sons live in Vienna and Dublin.
8115 Orlando West and its people: a review of Winnie and Nelson, portrait of a marriage by Jonny Steinberg
2023-07-11"Is this a good book? Yes, it is a bloody good book. Is it a masterpiece, as was A Man of Good Hope? No, its descriptions are, but its analysis is sometimes flawed. Would I recommend it as a purchase and as a read? Without a doubt."
Enter the lacuna: a review of Harry Oppenheimer by Michael Cardo
2023-06-02"Two biographies of Sir Ernest are both out of print, and Harry has, until this month, eluded biography."
South Africa’s national election in 2024: exciting times ahead?
2023-04-13"The ANC is losing ground to the EFF in that vital community, black youth. Young people worldwide are not interested in attending monthly meetings at which elderly people give rambling talks on the proud history of their movement – young people want action, protests, burning tyres, walking on and over the lines of legality. This the EFF offers, while the ANC Youth League is moribund, conceding this cohort of voters to the EFF."
Tár: a movie by Todd Field, with Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár
2023-03-15"But, of course, the cream on the cake is the extraordinary character that Field has created in Lydia Tár, and Ms Blanchett’s rendition of her is off another planet. Only vintage Streep could compete with Blanchett as Tár. It is an experience of an exceptional kind to be able to witness this performance."
Is the "big picture" of South Africa really so bad?
2023-02-06"In 1994, ignorant of this future, and on a national consensus of all political parties, we set out to do something that no country before us had done – we set out to deliver a welfare state to a country with a rapidly growing population, in the absence of an oil bonanza or some such."
Rory Riordan on his book Apartheid’s Stalingrad
2022-11-29Why were the townships of Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage apartheid’s Stalingrad? What happened in the eighties that left the NP with no choice but to start negotiating?
A library to flee by Etienne van Heerden: reader impression
2022-10-13"To have taken such inflammable issues, and to have presented them so inoffensively yet so clearly, is a clear pointer to Van Heerden’s remarkable skills as a writer. In Library, he plunges headfirst into fiction with social issues to discuss, and succeeds beyond his hopes, I’m sure. He has amused us, frightened us, titillated us and informed us."