Tag Archives: Marianne Thamm

Book Franschhoek Literary Festival before it’s too late!

FLF2As the 8th Franschhoek Literary Festival draws near, it is advisable to book the writer panel sessions as soon as possible, as they get booked out well in advance.  The more well-known the writer/s on the panels, the quicker they are booked out.   In addition to an intensive programme of talks from Friday until Sunday this coming weekend (16 – 18 May), entertainment is also available in the evenings.

The Festival is noble in generating funds for the Franschhoek Literary Festival Library Fund, for the following:

*  donating books to schools and creches

*  employing a librarian to work with four primary school libraries in the Franschhoek area, and part-time library assistants

*   visiting schools, reading and story-telling

*   Book Week for Young Readers, which is being held this week

*   Wine Writers prizes of R12500 each, in two categories: six to eight short pieces of 1000 words each, from a blog or column; and a long piece of 1000 – 4000 words. Winners to be selected by a panel, usually chaired by John Maytham.  Last year the prize was Continue reading →

Melanie Verwoerd Literary Lunch entertaining, Radisson Blu a disaster!

Gorry Bowes-Taylor does a great job for Wordsworth in ‘pairing’ authors of recently published books with good wines and meals at restaurants around Cape Town and the Winelands.  However, the Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront in Granger Bay let her down badly on Saturday, with the most over-promised and under-delivered lunch ever experienced, for the launch of Melanie Verwoerd’s book‘The Verwoerd who Toyi-Toyied‘.

It was commendable that Verwoerd came to the lunch, having flu, but she was witty for most of the talk about her book, until it came to the sad part about her losing her partner Gerry Ryan (she had divorced her Verwoerd husband Wilhelm some years before).  The ‘talk’ was in the form of a question and answer session, with a witty and sharp summary of key phases in Verwoerd’s life by actress and writer Marianne Thamm (currently writing Helen Zille’s biography, and author of ‘I have Life’ about attack victim Alison, which sold 85000 copies), who clearly was very well prepared and knew the book well.

The book was launched in Ireland and the UK as ‘When we Dance‘ last year, and was subject to an interdict in Ireland for a while, brought by Ryan’s friend David Kavanagh, her South African book containing a statement at the back of the book confirming the state of the relationship between the two friends.  She had been warned against speaking out, but always a rebel, she felt she had the ‘right to write’ her book, and was surprised that despite the court action it became a best seller in Ireland. Verwoerd traces her history, from growing up in Fochville as a Van Niekerk, and then in Stellenbosch, after she was adopted as a Fourie in her late teens.  She met Wilhelm Verwoerd at the University of Stellenbosch, and got married to him at the age of 20, giving up her studies in Theology to join him at Oxford, where he was studying on a prestigious Rhodes scholarship, to the shock of his parents, given that he is the grandson of the late Prime Minister HF Verwoerd, said to be the architect of apartheid. She did however graduate with Honours and Masters degrees. His parents feared that he would be ‘corrupted’ by England’s liberal values, and did not want him to be linked to Cecil John Rhodes either!  In London they met many ANC officials living there in exile, hearing about a South Africa they had never experienced. Returning to South Africa, they met President Mandela, and Wilhelm wanted to apologise to him for what his family had done to him, but Mandela told him that his surname could be a burden or a blessing – it would be Wilhelm’s choice as to how he would use it, in true Madiba style, Verwoerd said.  They became ANC members, under the radar initially, but eventually the news leaked, and it caused mayhem when his family found out, his father banning him from the house and disinheriting his son. Verwoerd ensured that her children stayed in touch with their grandparents.  She spoke fondly about ‘Ouma Betsie’, Wilhelm’s late grandmother, who lived in the all-White enclave of Orania, where she was visited by Mandela, described by her as a visit resembling that of a ‘foreign head of state‘.

Her book reminds one about the country’s conservative past, and we laughed when she related that she could not open a bank account in her own name, earning more than her husband as an ANC Member of Parliament (the youngest ANC MP ever), as it could endanger their marriage, the bank argued!  She did ultimately get her way with the bank.  Having achieved what she wanted as MP, she requested then-President Mbeki if she could head the South African embassy in Dublin, which he agreed to.  She laughed when she said that she was not ‘a born diplomat’ (much too direct, much like her ‘colleague’ Tony Leon, who headed the embassy in Buenos Aires). She fell in love with Ireland from the first day. She saw her challenge as ambassador to give the government a return on its investment in the embassy, and focused on tourism (130% increase) and wine promotion in the period 2001 – 2005, to great success in part due to the rise of the ‘Celtic Tiger’, she said, the demise of which she experienced too.  She then became UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) Ireland Executive Director, travelling in Africa on a number of occasions, working with Sir Roger Moore, Bono, Vanessa Redgrave, and Liam Neeson.  She was voted the Irish Tatler International Woman of the Year in 2007.  It was in this time that she met renowned radio presenter Gerry Ryan (with 500000 listeners, and a daily three hour show which ran for 25 years), and fell in love with him within half an hour of her first date with him, despite initially resisting his advances.  He was separated, but could not divorce before four years of separation had passed, as per the Irish divorce law.  They were a couple for two years, when he suddenly died alone in his apartment three years ago, and she became the shunned ‘other’ woman, who was told that she was lucky to be able to attend his funeral!  She and her children were hounded by the media, and Verwoerd ultimately lost her job at UNICEF due to the controversy surrounding Ryan’s death, and her relationship with him, her dismissal settled out of court.  All the VIP supporters other than Bono resigned from UNICEF Ireland to protest her dismissal! She denied that Ryan was a cocaine and drug user, but is open about his financial problems, in that he relied on Verwoerd for his living expenses, despite his big salary, which appeared to have been spent on his five children and an extravagant lifestyle.  Despite being divorced from Wilhelm, she retains his surname, she told me, quite contrary to her self-proclaimed feminist nature.  She still lives in Dublin, having dual citizenship now, and she loves the ‘softness of the country’, and how ordinary people will stop her in the street and give her a hug. Her two children are students at Trinity College.  She visits ‘home’ regularly though!  She is looking forward to the next 45 years of her life, which will include her coming back to live here, she said to conclude her talk.  In reading her book, it is clear why Ireland is so important to her, the memorial bench which she had erected for Ryan in a park in Dublin being an important link to him, despite the terrible treatment she received in Ireland as a result of her relationship with him.  Her children studying in Dublin must be another important reason.

The bookings for the Literary Lunch were taken by the hotel’s event co-ordinator Carmen Jansen, who followed up despite the paperwork having been faxed.  She was abrupt on arrival, and chased the payment after the first course, usually done at the end of the meal.  I discovered afterwards that she had left to go home, hence her eagerness to receive the payment!  The menu sounded fantastic on paper, but what was presented differed vastly from the description.  We had to Google most of the descriptions, to know what to expect on our plates!  Baguette and rye bread was served, with what looked like butter curls but was margarine. I asked the waitress for some real butter, and she brought branded Floro.  Another request led to branded butter arriving at the table!  The same waitress filled the water jug with so much ice that she poured most of it over the table, wetting my notebook.  Service had to be requested, nothing being done proactively, such as refilling the water jug.  Each table had a central display of a hand with flexible fingers holding an exercise book, to tie in with the literary theme, one assumes, but the naughty men at the table had fun in changing them to rude signs!  The venue was most unsuitable, a long rectangular room that had more than a hundred guests squeezed in, meaning that guests had to get up to let others get through.

The starter was ‘Baby Chicken 2ways‘, described as ‘confit leg cannon, grilled maize sage beurre (which must have been the wheel of pap), courgette roulade (which must have been the loosely wrapped vegetable strips), supreme pan seared (the other chicken style, we assumed) with napage (sic) of port wine spuma‘ (no foam was visible).  The pink mayonnaise was not included in the menu description!  For the main course ‘Crisp Salmon Scaloppini’ (thin slices of scallop with the salmon) was served with ‘crumbed aromatic fresh gremolata (lemon zest, garlic, parsley, olive oil), salsa di burro bruciato (appears to be burnt butter salsa), caper berries, gentle braised fondant potatoes and carcisfo frito (sic – the closest wording we found on Google was ‘carciofo fritto’ – fried artichoke!). We could not see the caper berries, but we found olives!  An elderly gentleman at our table asked the waitress if she could put the leftover salmon in a ‘doggie bag’, to spoil his cat, but she refused. I called the Deputy GM (they do not have a F&B Manager in this hotel), and I got the company policy talk (mainly for health purposes, and thus legal reasons, should the customer get ill if he ate it at home). Very kindly, after some persuasion, he relented!  The vegetarian eaters at our table had a rough time, their risotto being burnt.  For dessert we were promised a ‘Decadent Tasting Plate’, being anything but decadent, consisting of ‘Dark chocolate no bake cheese cake (tick) with angel hair (none to be seen), coconut crème brûlée with caramel crackling (curdled, no caramel topping!), coco rico (coconut soda?) jelly (tick), pistachio ice cream (tick) on coffee shortbread soil’ (tick).  No feedback was sought about the meal during the function. We were shocked to hear that Chef Grant Kennedy had not been on duty, and unfortunately it showed!

Allée Bleue sponsored the wines for the lunch, its MCC Brut Rose being a welcome drink if one did not want to start the lunch with a glass of decadent Hendrick’s Gin, served by dapper young men at a table with an interesting table display with cups.  Ansgar Flaatten, brother of Wesgro CEO Nils, heads up the wine division at the wine estate, and will be taking over as MD from Wolfgang Leyrer shortly.  He reminded the audience about the herb production, and their newly introduced herb tours and lunches on Friday mornings. The Starlette range was offered with the different courses, including a Chenin Blanc, Pinotage, Rouge, and Shiraz Rosé, all sold for around R40 a bottle.

The Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront has such a wonderful location at the water’s edge near the V&A Waterfront, and one wonders why they would have handled the book launch Literary Lunch so badly, with poor and over-promised food, and poor service!  We requested Gorry to not use this venue for her lunches again.  Verwoerd’s story ends sadly, yet bravely, in that she wrote the book, thereby fulfilling her promise to Ryan to tell his story, warts and all, and corrects many of the terrible things that were said about him after his death. she explained, Ryan appearing to be more controversial after his death, yet having had such a large following for so many years.  The book combines her love story with Ryan with her (and her ex-husband’s) story, using a local title that does not do this brave lady justice, with an odd typeface, and may not encourage book sales as much as the original title may have done.

POSTCRIPT 28/5: We posted our feedback about the lunch at the Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront on Saturday on this blog and on Twitter only.  Today we received the following reply from the hotel’s Executive Assistant Manager Marcel Eichenberger:  ‘Dear Cherissie (sic), I would like to thank you for the feedback regarding your lunch experience in Harbor View, this is a vital aspect of our business and without feedback such as yours we would not find a platform to grow and improve our quality of product and standards. I would like to apologize for your experience as this is certainly not our standard of food quality, presentation and service. We pride ourselves on what we serve and the personal service which our team provide.  By your feedback this was not the case and I am disheartened by our actions. I have and will address these issues with my team both service and kitchen to ensure we up our game to make sure this does not happen again. I have spoken to chef regarding the execution of the menu as per the menu and he too is very apologetic with regards to the outcome of his menu.  Our team is well trained and we invest a lot of resources to ensuring we serve the highest quality produce so that each guest has a great experience, our lack of execution is with great regret and I do apologize for this.  I have spoken to Mark our banqueting manager and he too will ensure that service delivery is executed on every function according to our standards.  With regards to the “doggy bag”, I do apologize that it was so difficult to arrange but it is to safeguard us as a global brand to ensure food safety is adhered too and I know at times exceptions can be made and we will look into this going forward.  The venue is a fantastic venue for functions and weddings up to 120 guests but we did go over our capacity and therefore making the venue very full, we are however are looking to make some changes to the venue and we hope to see this happen in the following year.  I am confident that this will make functions such as the lunch a more comfortable venue.  We get allot of our business via word of mouth so I would like the opportunity to make this up to you and if you would consider coming for a lunch or dinner to our Tobago’s restaurant I can assure you we will meet and exceed your expectation in both food quality and service. To my understanding you will also be joining us for the Chaine des Rotisseurs dinner and we hope to change your perception of our abilities.  Should you wish to take me up on my offer please contact me directly.  Once again my sincere apologies‘.

Melanie Verwoerd: ‘The Verwoerd who Toyi-Toyied’, Tafelberg Publishers.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: WhaleCottage

Franschhoek Literary Festival: Acknowledges importance and power of Twitter!

It is ironic that one of the most popular sessions of the sixth Franschhoek Literary Festival, ‘Tweeting for Africa‘, should acknowledge the importance of Twitter and confirm that it will ‘never go away’, when the Literary Festival (with only 322 followers) itself used Twitter so poorly to share the knowledge that was being generated by all its speakers.  Few Tweets were sent, and barely any Tweets by others were ReTweeted.

The panel for the Twitter session was an interesting ‘bolshy’ (referring to another session earlier in the day) mix of Gus Silber, a free-lance writer with 12000 followers; Professor Jonathan Jansen, Rector of the University of the Free State, who Tweets with his 33000 students, and has 21000 followers; and 5FM presenter Gareth Cliff, with more than 275000 followers! The session was chaired by 702 presenter Jenny Crys-Williams, with almost 9000 followers.

The personalities of the three panelists came through in the hour of the panel session in how they use and deal with Twitter and Tweets.  Gareth Cliff only follows 68 Twitter accounts, showing that he outputs information, and may ReTweet it, but that he is not necessarily using Twitter as an information source himself. He said one should choose carefully whom one follows, for the credibility of the information provided. He follows some accounts for the fun they generate.  He questioned why one would follow companies, mentioning Pick ‘n Pay, just selling gherkins, and having no personality at all, he said! There are many clever, but also stupid people, on Twitter. He praised Western Cape Premier Helen Zille for being the ‘best political Tweeter in the world’, even if she sometimes makes mistakes. It is a very democratic medium, in that everyone can have a say. Cliff sounded flippant when he said that he ignores any negative Tweets about himself, and for fun he may even ReTweet them, demonstrating his irreverence. There are ‘nasty, vile, and violent’ things written on Twitter, reflecting humanity, and this is ‘the dark side of Twitter’. He says one cannot be liked by everybody. He says that there is a lot of ‘misinformation’ on Twitter, and as well as false content Tweeted. Social Media has made all of us broadcasters now, he said, and that means that we must take responsibility for what we say. He says that Twitter is a close second to radio as a storytelling medium. Every sidelined person can have a conversation on Twitter, given that there are more cellphones than people in the country, making Twitter accessible to all. He warned against Tweeting too much, not more than once in 15 minutes being his advice. One must be on the edge of the topic, and push its boundaries. Tweeting about poor service has put the power back into the hands of the consumer. If one cannot say something in 140 characters, it does not need to be said. He praised the ‘amazing creativity’ in Tweets. Twitter is a ‘raw medium’, and if one posts something that is untrue or incorrect, one will be found out. When asked if he is paid to Tweet to endorse brands, he said that an ad agency written Tweet would have no credibility, and that he would be unfollowed if he were to hard sell or deceive his followers.  Pictures are important, but he warned against Tweeting ‘personal stuff’.  ‘Twitter trolls should not be given time nor tolerated‘.  When one is wasting time (bank or shop queue, plane delayed) he Tweets, and he can Tweet and do other things at the same time.  It becomes integrated into one’s life.

Gus Silber came across as a gentle man, who does not wish to offend by unfollowing anyone (he admitted that he has never unfollowed anyone), resulting in him following more than 11000 accounts, and therefore spends about 4-5 hours per day on Twitter.  Mocked about this by Cliff, he said that he is waiting for one snippet of information to come through that could be the potential for a story. He said that Twitter allows one to ‘plug into other people’s lives’, and that it has become ‘voyeuristic’, and shows one’s character – its like ‘Tweeting naked’, he said. He said that he used to walk around with a moleskin notebook, for story ideas, but now he uses his phone to share his observations with the world, creating a ‘Thoughtstream’.  He said that journalists are exhilarated by but petrified of Twitter, and must now Tweet their scoops before they are printed, to claim ownership of breaking news. Twitter is like ‘24 hour talk radio’, there is always someone Tweeting, but also people awake and ‘listening‘.   Social good can come from Twitter, and that is why it is called Social Media, but fights are an exception, even if they are entertaining. The cellphone is a ‘24 hour Molotov cocktail’. ‘In our vuvuzela democracy, we have all become very human, and very powerful people buddies’. Having a locked Twitter account is a complete waste of time!

Professor Jansen said that Twitter is a medium which is often used irresponsibly, yet he defended the two ‘dimwits’, referring to the two models writing racist Tweets. He did acknowledge that the technology for instant communication has made our world ‘less violent’. He said that teenagers hate their parents being on Twitter, trying to be cool.  He laughed when he said that he has quite a number of followers, but then Oprah Winfrey has 1 million! He warned about the addictive side of Twitter, and how families can sit around a dinner table, no longer talking to each other, each one Tweeting.  It is rude to Tweet while one is talking to someone, he said.

There is no debate about whether Twitter should be embraced – it is a powerful medium, and it is here to stay, the panel concluded!

Allied to this session was the one entitled ‘On being Bolshy’, given that Tweeting takes some kind of ‘bolshiness’. Gareth Cliff, Noseweek editor Martin Welz, and ex-Frontline editor Denis Beckett were the panelists, very ably chaired by Marianne Thamm, even if she misused her position for her personal issues. Martin Welz has no friends on Facebook, while Gareth Cliff has 300000.  However, Noseweek has 30000 readers, and they are the source of information for articles, as well as people who have tried everything else and come to the magazine as a ‘last resort’.  Welz called for letters to the editor to contain real names.  He said we have a right to an opinion, and he respects Gareth Cliff for expressing it. He also said that journalism costs money, to research stories. He said to applause that Noseweek has never written about Julius Malema. Thamm said that she ‘hates bloggers’, and more specifically food bloggers, writing for free!  Ironically, Jenny Hobbs is the organiser of the Franschhoek Literary Festival, and her daughter Jane-Anne is an über food blogger!

In what should have fitted in with this theme as well was yesterday’s session ‘The Price of Fame’, in which the panelist writers Alexandra Fuller, Richard Mason, and Gareth Cliff all protested their fame.  Mason said that Cliff was far more famous, in having been an Idols judge!  One gathered that Cliff did not agree with this, but he was ragged regularly by Mason.  The chairman of the session, Ndumiso Ngcobo, had no control over the strong egos on the panel, who were asking the questions, rather than him! As a result, the conversation was all over the show, and Cliff said relatively little! Fuller had the oddest ‘marketing strategy’, trashing her public image (maybe to prove how ‘unfamous’ she is), telling the audience repeatedly how much she drinks, to the detriment of her duties as a mother towards her children. It was the weakest of the sessions that we attended.

The Franschhoek Literary Festival attracted a sold out Twitter session, and could do well to expand on Social Media, and offering many more sessions on the topic next year! It also needs to vastly improve its Social Media generally and Twitter presence specifically, both in marketing a Festival which saw fewer attendees this year (coinciding with Mother’s Day, Indaba), and to share the content.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter:@WhaleCottage