Dad and Grandpa John. Notice the bare feet. Do you really understand what you are looking at? Unless you are South African . Unless you can feel the texture of life in Pretoria in the late 40s and 50s, then I doubt it. Writing has to be a victory of the inotic over the exotic. If you write well then the reader will know what it was like to be that boy and cease to catch at the look. I can't do that here and now, but I can say that we always went barefoot in South Africa and Kenya and Tanzania , my brothers and I. But when I married Teresa she used to tell my children they couldn't go barefoot because if they did they would get a cold. 'Why on earth do you say they will get a cold? That's ridiculous.' 'Because of the difference in temperature between their feet and their heads.' 'You are joking.' 'No. And when you go barefoot you have to wet you head to equalise the temperature and that way you don't catch a cold.' &
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head