Author Archives

Robyn Sassen

A freelance arts writer since 1998, I fell in love with the theatre as a toddler, proved rubbish as a ballerina: my starring role was as Mrs Pussy in Noddy as a seven-year-old, and earned my stripes as an academic in Fine Arts and Art History, in subsequent years. I write for a range of online and print publications, including the Sunday Times, the Mail & Guardian and artslink.co.za and was formerly the arts editor of the SA Jewish Report, a weekly newspaper with which I was associated for 16 years. I am currently a Research Associate at Wits University. This blog promises you new stories every week, be they reviews, profiles, news stories or features.

Hubris and criminal irresponsibility: A story of now

YOU MAY THINK you know the back story behind the coronavirus pandemic. You probably do know how it has impacted your life and your immediate circle. But when you have finished watching Alex Gibney’s magnificently made documentary Totally Under Control which is about how the world’s richest power […]

A £100 pup

EIGHT MONTHS AGO, you may have called a story with its heart in the cruel grip of an epidemic ‘apocalyptic’. Tomorrow evening, when you listen to the radio drama interpretation of CJ Langenhoven’s novella Mof en Sy Mense, you will recognise all the rawness of loss and the […]

How to dash a “Bond Girl” fantasy

THERE’S A DISARMING pragmatism about “Svetlana”, the seventh episode in the podcast series The End of the Line, which focuses on the stories of contemporary women who have elected not to have children. Svetlana’s narrative is about living in a world that hasn’t been taken care of, and […]

Sisters, in love and malice

MORE THAN AN exercise of escapism into the flaws and faux pas of privileged fictional characters, Craig Higginson’s most recent novel, The Book of Gifts, is a yarn about values and the fragility of young sensibilities. It’s a quick read because it is well crafted and the words […]