Helen Walne

[...] me 20 bucks for a pint?” My husband suggests: “Dear valued customer…” * First published in the Cape Argus, May 20, 2014* [...]

[...] Extracts from a lovely review by Beverley Roos-Muller, which was commissioned for the Cape Argus but was not published. “We don’t understand suicide; not really. Even in the most extreme [...]

[...] ). It just means they’ve gone into deep cyberspace – underground. * First published in the Cape Argus, June 3, 2014* [...]

[...] telly and taps, for a leaky passage to comfort. A Room of One’s Own. * First published in the Cape Argus, June 10, 2014* [...]

[...] . This was my first time in the country. I had been looking forward to a display of big people, big cars, big bangs and big fries. Miller eventually allowed us to clip a lead to his collar. His disc [...]

[...]  fragrant people, shout at the dogs, shout at the builders, shout at myself, shout at women in big cars who park in front of designer toy boutiques. Everything sucks such a big sucky suck that the [...]

[...] For those who missed it. Helen Walne discusses writing about the taboo topic of choosing suicide in this interview by John Maytham [...]

[...] A review by Keith Millar – Helen Walne’s writing moves into a whole new dimension in this intense and deeply personal account of her [...]

[...] the patio chairs. The dogs tried to bite them. But I clung on to the mental picture of a stylish bathroom filled with stylish things and a wet-room shower that would make me feel pretty and rich. [...]

[...] constellation. Naturally, it all started because the toilet was leaking. It smelt like the unisex bathroom of an Observatory bar. My elderly uncle was due to stay with us and we threw so many blue [...]

[...] lips that had mouthed a million printed words. People still read, despite the Twitter and the Facebook patter. This is good. Beyond the hype of authors with nice fringes and the jargon of post-modern [...]

[...] for a last, damp glimpse. It is those tender moments that make the Umhlalians disappear and imbue airports with a feeling endemic to those shiny halls of cut-price perfume, those over-priced coffees [...]

I’ve spent the last week on a road trip through the Karoo. I look like a red snapper: half of me is fish-belly white; the other half (the one on the [...]

Last week that great scrapbook in the sky, Facebook, launched a “legacy contact” feature, which allows users to nominate a person to continue mana [...]