TALES FROM THE GRAVEYARD

The popular Mondays @ 6 programme is now back at its original venue, the St Clements Garden Restaurant in Musgrave Road.

Monday (November 12) sees the launch of Pieter Scholtz’s collection of short stories entitled Tales From The Graveyard.

Well-known artist Andrew Verster, one of the prime movers of Mondays @ 6, pens the following information:

“Fiction to be believable must resemble our lives as much as possible,” says “And the best fiction is written by people who are life’s meticulous observers. To a greater rather than a lesser extent, one life is very like another in its broad sweep – we are born, we live, we die -but it is the details which create the differences and define each individual. And it is these details which are crucial.

“It is here that the writer Pieter Scholtz shines - he knows his characters from the inside as if they were part of his family. He is aware of their weaknesses and their strengths. And he loves them, forgiving the former and lauding the latter. This is crucial – one must be passionate - loving or hating - there can be no in between.

“A story in print that evokes the spoken word resonates with us making us remember the childhood joy of our mother reading to us at bedtime. I, in fact, read the stories out loud the first time, although I was alone and it was magical.

“Scholtz’s other home is in France, beside a water-tower and close to a cemetery so it is little wonder that his descriptions of place and person are so graphic. The names carved in stone set his clever imagination free to invent the people to fit them. One by one we meet them and get to know them. The finest writing uses the simplest of language allowing the story to provide the colour, as indeed the writer does page after page. For whom are these stories written? For us as adults – remembering the child we once were – and for the child who will be listening as we read the stories out loud to them. “

The programme will feature an introduction and slides by Marí Peté, followed by Chris Voysey in conversation with Pieter Scholtz. The reading of the stories will be performed by Philippa Savage and Pieter Scholtz.

Tales From The Graveyard in Mondays @ 6 will take place on November 12 at 17h30 for 18h00. Refreshments will be provided. More information and RSVP to Christine on 031 319 4450.