The Idler, uesday, August 13, 2013

Triumph over adversity When I consider how my light is spent Ere half my days in this dark world and wide, And that one talent which is death to hide Lodg'd with me useless … THE WORDS of John Milton on his blindness come to mind as, tomorrow evening, a feisty Durban 79-year-old launches her first novel, embarked on only after she too had been overtaken by blindness. Frances Hilton trained as a touch typist and worked as a legal secretary. It was in the year Nelson Mandela was released from prison that, to her dismay, she discovered she was losing her sight in a degenerative process that could not be reversed. (Today she has only peripheral vision). She was desperate and wondering whether she should not just throw herself off the pier. But then a friend introduced her to Tape Aids for the Blind, the organisation that has volunteers reading books into tape cassettes which are distributed to the blind. It opened for her a whole new world. Tape Aids was her lifeline. She had a new purpose. And the love she'd had ever since schooldays for English literature took hold. She set about writing her own novel, hammering it out on her faithful old Adler typewriter. As a trained touch typist she had no need to see the keyboard. The result is The Oliver Tryst (Reach Publishers), a 515-page novel set in Durban and the Midlands – a remarkable triumph over adversity. And the only way she'll "read" her own book is if Tape Aids records it for her. Frances uses the pen-name Will Robinson for much the same reason the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anne, at first used male pen-names (Curter Bell, Ellis Bell and Acton Bell) – because women writers were not taken seriously. So did Mary Ann Evans (published as George Eliot). It seems a little unusual in this day and age but there you are. The launch is tomorrow evening at 5.30 at the Tape Aids for the Blind offices, 14 Mitchell Crescent, Morningside. Holdouts A FATHER and son have been found living in the jungle more than 40 years after they fled American bombing during the Vietnam War. Ho Van Thanh left his home village with his baby son Ho Van Lang in 1971 after a mine blast killed the rest of his family. The pair apparently survived by foraging for fruit, lived in a treehouse and wore loincloths of tree bark. People searching for firewood spotted them deep in the forest. Ho Van Thanh is now 82 and his son 41. They grew their own food and even cultivated tobacco. It's a sad little tale, which recalls the Japanese "holdouts" who lived in the jungle for years, eating coconuts and bananas, not aware that World War II had ended. The last two holdouts to surrender were on the Philippine island of Lubang, 29 years after the war had ended, and on Morotai Island, Indonesia, the same year. What of this country? In the Marico district of North-West Province there still appear to be pockets of population who believe the Boer War has not yet ended, though these could be Herman Charles Bosman appreciation societies being addressed by the likes of local raconteur Spyker Koekemoer (aka Pat Smythe) who keeps up the good fight. Loan shark? NEW York commuters were astonished to find a 1.5m shark lying dead under a row of seats in their train. Passengers were asked to leave the train at Queens so that a conductor could remove the carcass. But not before some pictures were taken of the shark and posted on the internet, including one of the shark with a cigarette in his mouth, a ticket stub and a can of energy drink. Those New Yorkers have no respect at all for deceased payday loan operators. Mind games OVERHEARD in the Street Shelter for the Over-Forties: "I've been mentally undressing you all night. It's time to see if I'm right." Tailpiece HE COMES home from rugby. There's a note on the fridge: "It's not working, I can't take it anymore!! Gone to stay with a friend." He opens the fridge. The light comes on, the beer is cold. He wonders: "What the heck's she on about?" Last word When a man opens a car door for his wife, it's either a new car or a new wife. ~ Prince Philip