Wow, what a festival! What a way to celebrate our 5th anniversary. For the first time in our history, we packed out the large venue at the Yellowwood Restaurant in Howick overlooking the majestic Howick Falls. And the person to whom thispacking-out honour fell? No less than Marguerite “You Beauty!” Poland! For years I had tried to get this writer, whom I admire like a glorious sunrise, to Howick. And it was all worth the wait. Her illustrated talk on Nguni cattle was sublime. For 45 minutes she had us enthralled. For those 45 minutes she transported us to another world. It was easily in the top five percent of talks I have listened to in more than 30 literary festivals!
But everyone played their part. The crowds left the festival with smiles on their faces. Many who had planned to attend only some of the Saturday sessions drove all the way back to Howick on Sunday as well, some from a fair distance away.
Poet Kobus Moolman started us off with a bang. What a great voice Kobus is in South African poetry. It is only a matter of time before he wins a major literary prize.
17-year old schoolboy Jonathan Williams spoke like a seasoned literary critic. It will be many years before we again hear a talk like this on Manga and the history of Japanese comics. Something tells me Jonathan will visit us again, sooner rather than later, this time as an author.
KZN linguist Kerry Jones will no doubt be doing the literary circuit with her visionary trilingual (Afrikaans, English and Ju’hoan) children’s picture dictionary, the first of its kind in South Africa.What a noble vision Kerry has and how she pours her heart into her work. Please, could some visionary university give this young woman a permanent post in linguistics. She will do you proud. And her heart is in the right place!
On Sunday Ashwin Desai wowed us with his talk on his The Archi-texture of Durban – A Skapie’s Guide. Not since Dana Snyman's Hiervandaan have I waxed so lyrical about a book – this will be in my top five books of 2014, and very few will come close to it. It takes a critical, hard-hitting look at a Durban known intimately by this man with a poet’s heart. And for that I awarded him the Midlands Literary Festival Award for best book of 2014 in the Open Category.
But I could not let Chris Albertyn walk away without awarding him the Midlands Literary Award in the Coffee Table Book category for his labour of love, Keeping Time: The Photographs and Cape Town Jazz Recordings of Ian Huntley (1964–1974). Almost unbelievable in its magnificent overall content is this tour de force about the forgotten (or perhaps more accurately: never before known) history of jazz in South Africa. What made the presentation all the more special was that Ian Huntley himself, the man responsible for this impressive archive, was also here, sitting unassumingly in the audience.
And there were many more memorable moments – almost every talk a highlight in its own right, with speakers ranging from vet Mike Lowry, priest Beryl Arikum, retired judge Chris Nicholson and the doyen of conservation, Ian Player, to battlefields tour guide Nicki von der Heyde and wildlife artist Barbara Siedle. These and all the other writer-speakers contributed to a truly unforgettable event, with Nicky Grieshaber’s piano music during the tea and lunch intervals adding a unique touch to the character of this festival.
Long will the Midlands Literary Festival continue!
Darryl Earl David
Organiser
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Ashwin Desai and Sheritha David, wife of festival organiser Darryl David
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Festival visitors Bruce and Tylar Haynes with Yellowwood Restaurant in the background
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Ian Player spoke on the all-important history of rhino conservation in South Africa and elsewhere.
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Marguerite Poland enthralled the listeners with her authoritative talk on Nguni cattle and their names.
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