FIVE QUESTIONS

What’s the image on your phone’s home screen?

It is a painting by Izak de Villiers (who signs his work as Zach Benjamin). When he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease he created this painting called Pampoene (pumpkins). I bought it in 2004. This painting reminds me of the Karoo skies, the terrain and vegetation. Memories of our childhood: the lamps and the pumpkins. In the middle is the image of a man on paper, crumbled and discarded. His characteristic fantasy paintings with images from our past and present, the colour he uses, make this painting one of my favourites. I put it on my phone during lockdown, as I was yearning for the Karoo, its skies, and the stars.

What would you spend your last R100 on?

I would probably spend it on food, to make sure we don’t go hungry! If I was away from home, I would use it to get me home.

What’s the worst piece of advice you ever took?

Gee, I have been racking my brain on this. I think I am too hard-headed to take advice from anyone… I take full responsibility for all my bad choices! But I do regret that no one advised me to take typing at school. I am a two finger typist, and it is a serious impediment for me, every day of my life!

The thing you wish you learnt earlier on in your life?

To take time with people that you love, to treasure them more.

Three books that have changed your life:

So many books have changed my life at different points in my life; hard choice… Recently, Angle of Repose (Wallace Stegner) and Midnight’s Children (Salman Rushdie); but my all-time favourite author is Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and I will choose 100 Years of Solitude, because I got my daughter to read it during lockdown.