The poet of apprehension

A book review of: HER DIARIES AND NOTEBOOKS 1941-1995 Patricia Highsmith Editor: Anna von Planta; afterword by Joan Schenkar. Weidenfeld and Nicholson 2021,

07.2024 | Tom Learmont

Other Voices - Confessions of a TV Translator

“I’m setting my lawyer on you,” said the furious woman, speaking from a Crimplene shop in Joburg. “You told lies on TV. When I tried to book the holiday you promised, they told me you made it all up. I can get you into big trouble.”

01.2024 | Tom Learmont

The evolution of beauty

Evolution is my faith; Darwin is my prophet. And evolution explains the power women hold over men. Males of the species Homo sapiens sapiens are in thrall to a phenomenon called neoteny.

05.2023 | Tom Learmont

The karoo – cradle of the mammals

Africa may have been the cradle of Humankind, but the continent was also the birthplace of the order to which we belong – the Mammalia.

08.2021 | Tom Learmont

The mermaid man

Marine mammal scientist Dr Vic Cockcroft fears that the “mermaids” he studies may be doomed.

01.2021 | Tom Learmont

Slush pile blues

People still give the “rabbit look” – that wordless upward wrinkle of the nose – when you confess to the solitary act of self-publication.

11.2020 | Tom Learmont